Methods and systems for calendaring, social networking and planning for users, including, vendors, consumers and enterprises

ABSTRACT

A computerized system is provided for generating a visual presentation for visually organizing one or more activities of a user, including vendors. The methods and systems are directed to calendaring, social networking, and planning for users, including vendors, consumers and enterprises.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation-in-part of U.S. patent applicationSer. No. 12/705,850, filed Feb. 15, 2010, and this application claimspriority to U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 61/852,016,filed Mar. 15, 2013, each of which is hereby incorporated herein byreference in its entirety.

FIELD

The present invention relates generally to systems and methods forintegrating and managing life events. Additionally, the presentinvention relates to systems and methods for a combined calendar andsocial network integrating multiple timeline in different categories oflife on a single planning system for a variety of user types andincluding vendor teaming. The present invention further relates tocomputerized personal planning systems providing a graphical outputformat, and more particularly to a computerized personal planning systemwhich displays prequalified vendors, including, professionals,businesses, teachers, or potential commercial sources of potential goodsand services, and/or vendor teams or groupings, each displayed at anappropriate place in the graphical output format.

BACKGROUND

The complexity of modern life may be attenuated by the use of suitableplanning systems to enable people to organize and plan future events.Both routine and extraordinary events may be assisted by a suitableplanning system. Some people keep lists to serve as reminders. Othersmark calendars to similar effect. However, being in fixed form, paperbased planning and reminder systems are subject to inability toaccommodate changes, additions, deletions, and similar modifications.

Planning systems are typically based on data entered by the user oroperator of the system, and cannot accept inputs from outside sources orsecond parties. Sometimes, the second parties with whom the user willinteract may have inputs to the interaction which are potentially ofinterest to the user of the system. The user must typically make anon-the-spot decision to include these inputs or to dismiss these secondparties.

Many digital reminder systems cannot accept inputs, such asadvertisements, from second parties. The numbers and identities ofpotential suppliers of goods and services for upcoming events may belimited to those known to the user, with more suitable suppliers beingignored.

Many digital planning systems cannot discriminate among or prequalifypotential suppliers of goods and services so that those presented by thesystem are the most suitable.

Many planning systems cannot contribute to planning by the user.

Many planning systems cannot allow multiple users or suppliers to workas a team when presenting content to system users.

There exists a need for a dynamic planning system which can activelyidentify suitable suppliers of goods and services, which can assist inorganizing or planning an upcoming event, and which most successfullylinks a person who may be overwhelmed with the details of planning oneor more events with truly helpful suppliers.

SUMMARY

Various embodiments are generally directed to computerized personalplanning systems providing a graphical output format to overcome theaforementioned problems.

The planning systems and methods are direct to a platform for theintegration of all life events under one roof featuring a uniform userinterface by combining a social network with a calendar that allowsmultiple parallel timeline in different categories of life (single signon to a universal platform).

The planning system is ideal for a variety of real-time relationship andconsumer-based interactions between:

-   -   Parent/teacher;    -   Vendor/consumer;    -   Doctor/patient;    -   Mechanic/driver;    -   Coach/player;    -   Software patch/server;    -   Election candidate/constituent;    -   Project manager/Team-member; and    -   Owner/Asset, etc.

The planning system and methods, may include, for example:

-   -   Uniform purchasing portal if accounting API is available or Semi        uniform Purchasing portal to lead user to the external vendor        purchasing portal;    -   Uniform Subscription/un-subscription to different vendors;    -   New Advertisement engine, Pulled advertisement instead of push        advertisement, users only see the ads that belong to vendors        they subscribed to;    -   Platform for saving coupons' history for both vendor and        consumer;    -   Advisor platform and sharing portion of user timeline with        another user or copy one portion of timeline to another;    -   Asset management, every asset in life can have a timeline, every        aspect of life can have a timeline;    -   Project management;    -   Health care management;    -   Dynamic teaming between vendors (no more need for static website        such as travelocity.com);    -   Access to big data in all aspects of life (family, work, kids,        entertainment, shopping, etc.);    -   All standard functionality of a calendar will be offered, such        event creation/deletion/update, reminders, re-occurring events,        etc.;    -   All standard functionality of a social network, such as sharing        pictures, events, friends connection will be offered;    -   Allow dragging events from one sub-timeline to another        sub-timeline;    -   Auto population and mail grabber of vendor's        events/offers/coupons/advises into a dedicated timeline;    -   Managing Business to business Ads (B2B) and Business to Consumer        Ads (B2C);    -   Synchronization with well known Calendars and social media;    -   Access to historical vendor events/offers/coupons/advise for        both B2B, C2B and B2C;    -   Central place for suggesting vendors to vendors, vendors to        consumers and consumers to vendors; and    -   Synchronization with well-known Calendars and social media.

The planning system can be implemented using a computer readable storagemedium for presenting a the planning system, including user, vendorand/or team timelines based on information received users, advisors,vendor, etc. The computer readable storage medium can includeinstructions that if executed enables a computing system to implementthe methods and actions of the planning system.

One or more embodiments may include generating a visual presentationwhich is functional to visually organize and present a plurality ofactivities of a user, to display at least one subordinate aspect of theplurality of activities, and to link at least one of a plurality ofvendors of goods, services, or both goods and services for supporting atleast one of the plurality of activities. The presentation generationincludes the steps of: providing a data processor having a visualoutput, a human-machine interface, and an internet connection; providingmanagement programming loaded into the data processor; displaying on thevisual output a timeline comprising at least one element representing atleast one timeline pertaining to the activity, the at least one timelinecomprising a time interval with at least one timeline event disposedalong the at least one timeline, wherein each at least one timelineevent represents the at least one subordinate aspect pertaining to theactivity and a location of the at least one timeline event along therespective timeline represents a time when the subordinate aspect of theat least one timeline event is to be addressed by the user; displayingon the visual output at least one advisor, wherein the at least oneadvisor displays an offer of at least one of a publicly available goodor a publicly available service pertaining to the at least onesubordinate aspect of the activity for the at least one timeline event,wherein the advisor contains data corresponding to advertising content;receiving input to link the at least one advisor to the timeline thatpertains to the at least one subordinate aspect of the activity;creating the link between the at least one advisor and the at least onetimeline; and displaying the at least one timeline, the at least onetimeline event, and the at least one advisor offer simultaneously on thevisual output.

One or more embodiments may include the timeline events having aplurality of timeline event icons, and the advisor includes an advisoryicon.

One or more embodiments may include the further step of displaying onthe visual output a plurality of timelines each pertaining to subjectmatter different from that of every other timeline.

One or more embodiments may include the step of displaying on the visualoutput of the data processor comprises the further step of displayingand concealing an at least one of the timelines and the advisor by usermanipulation of the human-machine-interface.

One or more embodiments may include the step of displaying the at leastone timeline and a plurality of subject matter selection icons on eachof the at least one timeline, wherein each of the plurality of subjectmatter selection icons represent a different timeline of the at leastone timeline, and the step of displaying on the visual output of thedata processor comprises the further step of selectively activating andcanceling the at least one timeline by clicking on a predeterminedsymbol displayed on the display screen.

One or more embodiments may include the step of selectively activatingand canceling a timeline comprises the further step of displaying atleast two of the timelines simultaneously.

One or more embodiments may include the step of removing a generatedadvisory icon from display on the visual output by manipulation of thehuman-machine-interface.

One or more embodiments may include the step of providing managementprogramming loaded into the data processor comprises the further step ofdedicating one timeline to activities pertaining to one of the work ofthe user of the method, the residence of the user of the method, atleast one motor vehicle used by the user, at least one child of theuser, a pregnancy in the social circle of the user, and a wedding.

One or more embodiments may include a system for a user-vendor interfacebetween a user and a vendor. The system includes a memory; and aprocessor coupled to the memory, the processor being configured to:receive input from a team lead vendor for a team timeline for a team;create the team timeline for the team; display the team timeline for theteam; receive input from the team lead vendor for starting the team withat least one team member; create the team with the at least one teammember; display the team with the at least one team member; receiveinput from the at least one team member for a team member event; createthe team member event in the team timeline; display the team memberevent in the team timeline; receive input from the team lead vendor topublish the team timeline for access by a timeline user; create thepublished team timeline for access by the timeline user; and display thepublished team timeline and permit access by the timeline user, whereinthe user-vendor interface serves as a virtual middle layer allowingusers to interface with a plurality of vendors using the sameuser-vendor interface.

One or more embodiments may include a system wherein the processorfurther configured to: receive input from the timeline user to subscribeto the published team timeline; create the team member event in atimeline for the timeline user; and display the team member event in atimeline for the timeline user.

One or more embodiments may include a system wherein the processorfurther configured to: receive input from the team lead vendor to searchfor the at least one team member; receive input from the team leadvendor to send an invitation for the at least one team member; create atleast one invitation for the at least one team member; and display theat least one invitation for the at least one team member.

One or more embodiments may include a system wherein the processorfurther configured to: receive input from a single vendor for a singlevendor timeline; create the single vendor timeline; and display thesingle vendor timeline.

One or more embodiments may include a system wherein the processorfurther configured to: receive input from the team lead vendor for ateam lead vendor event for the team timeline; create the team leadvendor event in the team timeline; and display the team lead vendorevent in the team timeline.

One or more embodiments may include a system wherein the at least oneteam member comprises a plurality of team members, the team member eventcomprises a plurality of team member events for each of the teammembers, and the team timeline comprises a single timeline for the team.

One or more embodiments may include a system wherein the processor isfurther configured to: receive input from the at least one team memberfor accepting the invitation from the team lead vendor to allow the atleast one team member to access the team timeline; create access to theteam timeline for the at least one team member; and display access tothe team timeline for the at least one team member.

One or more embodiments may include a system wherein the at least oneteam member is a vendor.

One or more embodiments may include a system wherein the processor isfurther configured to: receive input from the at least one team memberfor one or more of adding, deleting and updating the team member eventon the team timeline; and implement the one or more addition, deletionand update to the team member event on the team timeline.

One or more embodiments may include a system wherein the published teamtimeline is republished and the published timeline continues to exist asa historical published team timeline.

One or more embodiments may include a system wherein the processor isfurther configured to: receive user input from the timeline user to atleast one of subscribe and unsubscribe to one or more of the teamtimeline and a single vendor with a single vendor timeline; andimplement the at least one of the subscription and unsubscription to theone or more of the team timeline and the single vendor timeline for thetimeline user, wherein the team timelines, when unsubscribed, areretained as historical timelines for use in uniform historicalcomparisons.

One or more embodiments may include a system wherein the processor isfurther configured to: receive input from the team lead vendor to one ormore of delete and change the team member event; create the one or moredeletion and change to the team member event in the team timeline; anddisplay the one or more deletion and change to the team member event inthe team timeline.

One or more embodiments may include a system wherein the team memberevent comprises one or more of a coupon and advertisement.

One or more embodiments may include a system wherein the processor isfurther configured to: receive input from the timeline user to createthe user timeline; create the user timeline; display the user timeline;receive input from the timeline user to browse one or more of the teamtimeline from one or more of the team lead vendor and the single vendorto subscribe to one or more of the team timeline; create a subscriptionto the one or more of the one or more team vendor timelines and thesingle vendor timeline for the timeline user, wherein the subscriptiondirects the team member event to one or more of: a) a main timeline ofthe user timeline, and b) at least one sub-timeline of the usertimeline; and display a subscription to the one or more of the one ormore team vendor timelines and the single vendor timeline for thetimeline user, wherein the subscription directs the team member event toone or more of: a) a main timeline of the user timeline, and b) at leastone sub-timeline of the user timeline.

One or more embodiments may include a system wherein each of the user,single vendor and team vendor timelines are updated and an originaltimeline is maintained as a historical timeline for comparison.

One or more embodiments may include a system wherein the team leadvendor includes one or more of a teacher, doctor, company, advisory andvendor; and the timeline user includes one of a parent, patient,consumer, company, advisor and vendor.

One or more embodiments may include a system wherein the processor isfurther configured to: receive input from at least one timeline user forcreating a main timeline; create the main timeline; and display the maintimeline.

One or more embodiments may include a system wherein the processor isfurther configured to: receive input from at least one timeline user tocreate at least one sub-timeline, wherein each of the at least onesub-timeline has a unique category; create the at least one sub-timelinewith the unique category; and display the at least one sub-timeline withthe unique category, wherein the at least one sub-timeline is one of:shared with and copied to another timeline user.

One or more embodiments may include a system wherein the processor isfurther configured to: receive input from the at least one timeline userto create a timeline user event; create the timeline user event on themain timeline; display the timeline user event on the main timeline;receive input from the at least one timeline user to create the timelineuser event in one or more of the at least one sub-timeline; create thetimeline user event in one or more of the at least one sub-timelines;and display the timeline user event in one or more of the at least onesub-timelines.

One or more embodiments may include a system wherein the processor isfurther configured to: receive input from at least one of the team leadvendor, the team member, and the single vendor for a seeded timelineevent including at least one of a one-time event, a recurring event, anda flexible event; create the seeded timeline event on one or more of theteam timeline and the single vendor timeline; and display the seededtimeline event on one or more of the team timeline and the single vendortimeline.

One or more embodiments may include a system wherein the processor isfurther configured to: receive input from one or more of: the team leadvendor, the single vendor and the user timeline for sharing one or moreof the team timeline, the single vendor timeline, and the user timeline;create one or more of: the shared team timeline, the shared singlevendor timeline, and the shared user timeline; and display one or moreshared team timeline, shared single vendor timeline, and shared usertimeline.

One or more embodiments may include a system wherein one or more of: theteam timeline and the single vendor timeline includes a plurality ofevents, and one or more of the team lead vendor and the single vendordesignates an event as a pop-up event.

One or more embodiments may include a system wherein the timeline usersubscribes to one or more single and team lead vendor, and the pop-upevent is filtered to accept only a pop-up event from the subscribed-tovendors.

One or more embodiments may include a system wherein the pop-up event isfiltered based upon key words by the timeline user.

One or more embodiments may include a system wherein the processor isfurther configured to: receive input regarding auto-populating an event;create the auto-populated event in one or more of the team vendortimeline and the single vendor timeline; display the auto-populatedevent in one or more of the team vendor timeline and the single vendortimeline; receive input from the timeline user to subscribe to one ofthe team vendor timeline and the single vendor timeline; and create thesubscription.

One or more embodiments may include a system wherein the processor isfurther configured to: receive input from one or more of the singlevendor and the team lead vendor selecting one or more of a category anda sub-category relating to a vendor business; create the one or morecategory and sub-category; display the one or more category andsub-category; receive input from the ad-creator vendor for creating anadvertisement by selecting a media file based on the one or morecategory and sub-category for a target vendor wherein the target vendoris one or more of the single vendor and the team lead vendor; create theadvertisement for delivery to one or more of the: category andsub-category of the target vendor; and display the advertisement fordelivery to one or more of the: category and sub-category of the targetvendor.

One or more embodiments may include a system for a user-vendor interfacebetween a user and a vendor, the system including a memory; and aprocessor coupled to the memory, the processor being configured to:receive an event from a timeline user for a main timeline; create theevent from the timeline user in the main timeline; display the eventfrom the timeline user in the main timeline; receive a categorized eventfrom a timeline user for a sub-timeline; create the categorized eventfrom the timeline user in the sub-timeline; display the categorizedevent from the timeline user in the sub-timeline; receive a vendor eventfrom a vendor for a vendor timeline; create the vendor event from thevendor in the vendor timeline; display the vendor event from the vendorin the vendor timeline; allow the timeline user to have access to thevendor timeline; allow the timeline user to subscribe to the vendortimeline; and display at least one of the main timeline, thesub-timeline and the subscribed-to vendor timeline, wherein theuser-vendor interface serves as a virtual middle layer allowing users tointerface with a plurality of vendors using the same user-vendorinterface.

One or more embodiments may include a system wherein the vendor includesone or more of a single vendor, a team-lead vendor and the timelineuser.

One or more embodiments may include a system wherein the processor isfurther configured to: create a plurality of sub-timelines each of whichcorrespond to one of a plurality of unique categorizations, wherein eachof the plurality of unique categorizations are different; display aplurality of sub-timelines each of which correspond to one of aplurality of unique categorizations, wherein each of the plurality ofunique categorizations are different; receive a plurality of categorizedevents, wherein each of the plurality of categorized events correspondto one of the plurality of unique categorizations; create each of theplurality of categorized events in one of the plurality of thesub-timeline, wherein each of the plurality of categorized events relateto one of the plurality of unique categorizations; and display each ofthe plurality of categorized events in the one of the plurality ofsub-timelines.

One or more embodiments may include a system wherein each of theplurality of sub-timelines is an additional timeline created for one ofa plurality of categories of life, wherein each of the plurality ofcategories of life comprises one or more of: sports, work, school,family business, departments, goods, and serves.

One or more embodiments may include a system wherein the event and thevendor event contain information comprising one or more of: title, date,type, media, and sub-timeline.

One or more embodiments may include a system wherein the event and thevendor event comprise one or more of: a life event, a coupon, anadvertisement, and advice.

One or more embodiments may include a system wherein the processor isfurther configured to: receive third-party calendar information from athird-party; create a third-party event in one or more of: the user maintimeline, user sub-timeline, and the vendor timeline; and display athird-party event in one or more of: the user main timeline, usersub-timeline, and the vendor timeline.

These and other features and advantages will be apparent from a readingof the following detailed description and a review of the associateddrawings. It is to be understood that both the foregoing generaldescription and the following detailed description are explanatory onlyand are not restrictive of aspects as claimed.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Various objects, features, and attendant advantages of the presentinvention will become more fully appreciated as the same becomes betterunderstood when considered in conjunction with the accompanyingdrawings, in which like reference characters designate the same orsimilar parts throughout the several views, and wherein:

FIG. 1 shows a representative screen display depicting planned events oractivities arranged along timelines, in addition to other features.

FIG. 2 shows a representative screen display similar to FIG. 1, butshowing additional timelines.

FIG. 3 shows a representative screen display depicting commands whichmay be used to categorize on-line advertisers and to generate contentdisplays based on advertising content.

FIG. 4 shows a representative screen display depicting elements of FIG.3, but including additional display options.

FIG. 5 shows an alternative display format which may be used to displaysubject matter which could be displayed using the format of FIG. 1.

FIG. 6 shows a further alternative display format which may be used todisplay subject matter which could be displayed using the format of FIG.1.

FIG. 7 shows a still further alternative display format which may beused to display subject matter which could be displayed using the formatof FIG. 1.

FIG. 8A depicts an exemplary architectural diagram.

FIG. 8B depicts an exemplary architectural diagram.

FIG. 8C depicts an exemplary architectural diagram.

FIG. 9A depicts an exemplary logic flow diagram.

FIG. 9B depicts an exemplary logic flow diagram.

FIG. 9C depicts an exemplary logic flow diagram.

FIG. 9D depicts an exemplary logic flow diagram.

FIG. 9E depicts an exemplary logic flow diagram.

FIG. 9F depicts an exemplary logic flow diagram.

FIG. 9G depicts an exemplary logic flow diagram.

FIG. 9H depicts an exemplary logic flow diagram.

FIG. 9I depicts an exemplary logic flow diagram.

FIG. 9J depicts an exemplary logic flow diagram.

FIG. 9K depicts an exemplary logic flow diagram.

FIG. 9L depicts an exemplary logic flow diagram.

FIG. 9M depicts an exemplary logic flow diagram.

FIG. 9N depicts an exemplary logic flow diagram.

FIG. 9O depicts an exemplary logic flow diagram.

FIG. 9P depicts an exemplary logic flow diagram.

FIG. 9Q depicts an exemplary logic flow diagram.

FIG. 10AA depicts an exemplary interface which may be used by vendorsand team vendors.

FIG. 10A depicts an exemplary interface which may be used by vendors andteam vendors.

FIG. 10B depicts an exemplary interface which may be used by vendors andteam vendors.

FIG. 10C depicts an exemplary interface which may be used by vendors andteam vendors.

FIG. 10D depicts an exemplary interface which may be used by vendors andteam vendors.

FIG. 10DD depicts an exemplary interface which may be used by vendorsand team vendors.

FIG. 10E depicts an exemplary interface which may be used by vendors andteam vendors.

FIG. 10F depicts an exemplary interface which may be used by vendors andteam vendors.

FIG. 10G depicts an exemplary interface which may be used by vendors andteam vendors.

FIG. 10H depicts an exemplary interface which may be used by vendors andteam vendors.

FIG. 10I depicts an exemplary interface which may be used by vendors andteam vendors.

FIG. 10II depicts an exemplary interface which may be used by vendorsand team vendors.

FIG. 10J depicts an exemplary interface which may be used by vendors andteam vendors.

FIG. 10JJ depicts an exemplary interface which may be used by vendorsand team vendors.

FIG. 10K depicts an exemplary interface which may be used by vendors andteam vendors.

FIG. 10L depicts an exemplary interface which may be used by vendors andteam vendors.

FIG. 10M depicts an exemplary interface which may be used by timelineusers.

FIG. 10N depicts an exemplary interface which may be used by timelineusers.

FIG. 10O depicts an exemplary interface which may be used by timelineusers.

FIG. 10P depicts an exemplary interface which may be used by timelineusers.

FIG. 10Q depicts an exemplary interface which may be used by timelineusers.

FIG. 10R depicts an exemplary interface which may be used by timelineusers.

FIG. 11A depicts an exemplary interface using the planning system in theteacher and parent relationship.

FIG. 11B depicts an exemplary interface using the planning system in theteacher and parent relationship.

FIG. 11BB depicts an exemplary interface using the planning system inthe teacher and parent relationship.

FIG. 11C depicts an exemplary interface using the planning system in theteacher and parent relationship.

FIG. 11CC depicts an exemplary interface using the planning system inthe teacher and parent relationship.

FIG. 11D depicts an exemplary interface using the planning system in theteacher and parent relationship.

FIG. 11E depicts an exemplary interface using the planning system in theteacher and parent relationship.

FIG. 11EE depicts an exemplary interface using the planning system inthe teacher and parent relationship.

FIG. 11F depicts an exemplary interface using the planning system in theteacher and parent relationship.

FIG. 11G depicts an exemplary interface using the planning system in theteacher and parent relationship.

FIG. 11H depicts an exemplary interface using the planning system in theteacher and parent relationship.

FIG. 11I depicts an exemplary interface using the planning system in theteacher and parent relationship.

FIG. 11J depicts an exemplary interface using the planning system in theteacher and parent relationship.

FIG. 11K depicts an exemplary interface using the planning system in theteacher and parent relationship.

FIG. 11L depicts an exemplary interface using the planning system in theteacher and parent relationship.

FIG. 11M depicts an exemplary interface using the planning system in theteacher and parent relationship.

FIG. 11N depicts an exemplary interface using the planning system in theteacher and parent relationship.

FIG. 11O depicts an exemplary interface using the planning system in theteacher and parent relationship.

FIG. 11P depicts an exemplary interface using the planning system in theteacher and parent relationship.

FIG. 11Q depicts an exemplary interface using the planning system in theteacher and parent relationship.

FIG. 11R depicts an exemplary interface using the planning system in theteacher and parent relationship.

FIG. 11S is an embodiment for illustration of timelines.

FIG. 12A depicts a prior art calendar.

FIG. 12B depicts a three-dimensional calendaring and social networkingplanning system in accordance with the principles of the invention.

FIG. 12C depicts exemplary user timelines in accordance with theprinciples of the invention.

FIG. 12D depicts exemplary user timelines in accordance with theprinciples of the invention.

FIG. 12E depicts exemplary user timelines in accordance with theprinciples of the invention.

FIG. 12F depicts exemplary user timelines in accordance with theprinciples of the invention.

FIG. 12G depicts exemplary user timelines in accordance with theprinciples of the invention.

FIG. 12H depicts exemplary user timelines in accordance with theprinciples of the invention.

FIG. 13 depicts an exemplary vendor teaming timeline.

FIG. 14A depicts an exemplary interface used for historical comparison.

FIG. 14B depicts an exemplary interface used for historical comparison.

FIG. 14C depicts an exemplary interface used for historical comparison.

FIG. 15A depicts an exemplary user interface for sharing.

FIG. 15B depicts an exemplary user interface for sharing.

FIG. 15C depicts an exemplary user interface for sharing.

FIG. 16A depicts an exemplary user interface for an offer purchase.

FIG. 16B depicts an exemplary user interface for an offer purchase.

FIG. 16C depicts an exemplary user interface for an offer purchase.

FIG. 16D depicts an exemplary user interface for an offer purchase.

FIG. 16E depicts an exemplary user interface for an offer purchase.

FIG. 16F depicts an exemplary user interface for an offer purchase.

FIG. 17A depicts an exemplary user interface for mobile.

FIG. 17B depicts an exemplary user interface for mobile.

FIG. 17C depicts an exemplary user interface for mobile.

FIG. 17CC is an embodiment for illustration of planning system.

FIG. 17D depicts an exemplary user interface for mobile.

FIG. 17E depicts an exemplary user interface for mobile.

FIG. 17F depicts an exemplary user interface for mobile.

FIG. 17G depicts an exemplary user interface for mobile.

FIG. 17H depicts an exemplary user interface for mobile.

FIG. 17I depicts an exemplary user interface for mobile.

FIG. 17J depicts an exemplary user interface for mobile.

FIG. 17K depicts a user interface showing the timelines in hourlyincrements.

FIG. 17L depicts a user interface on a mobile display with the “Aidanson #2” timeline tab selected for display.

FIG. 18 depicts an exemplary architecture for implementing a computingdevice in accordance with one or more embodiments.

FIG. 19 depicts an exemplary schematic diagram for implementing acomputing system in accordance with one or more embodiments.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The systems and methods described herein are directed toward a web-basedsocial planning system to assist various user types to better organizetheir lives and/or businesses. Users are faced with a multitude ofoptions in managing schedules, from the rudimentary post-it note to thesmart phone reminder. Some web-based services exist with features thatdigitize the process of keeping track of life events and tasks, however,there still exists a need for a synchronized planning system. Inaccordance with the principles of the invention as described herein andvariations thereof, the systems and methods are directed toward ascheduling and organizing context that can be utilized among consumers,enterprises, and vendor markets.

The systems and methods are directed toward an online planning tool andsocial planning system that efficiently merges the many accounts whereusers store important information, including calendar information. Byutilizing organized parallel timelines to manage different functions andaspects of a user's life, such as school, work, and family, the systemsand methods associated with the planning system deliver multipletimelines dedicated to those aspects and/or life categories. Thecomplimentary social component allows users to connect with friends,teachers, and colleagues through those timelines. This focus allows thesystems and methods associated with the planning system to be attractiveto businesses and vendors that need to communicate with customers andprospects about upcoming events and/or promotions, and provide commonground for this communication to take place. It is contemplated that thesystems and methods can be utilized in a product for both web and mobileapplication formats.

The systems and methods are contemplated for use to plan and organizedevents such as celebrations, medical, educational, vacations, etc. Thesystems and methods can also be implemented for use in enterprises forproject management, asset management, and/or firmware patch management.Additionally, health care management, event management in governmentcontracting (e.g., Requests for Proposals (RFP), Requests forInformation (RFI), and government contracting teaming management(Prime-contractor/Sub-contractor) are contemplated for use the systemsand methods described herein. The systems and methods may also be usedwith vendors, whether receiving formal payment or not. The systems andmethods may be utilized to allow vendors to serve as advisors forconsumer queries, for example, a woman searches for a pregnancy advisorand subscribes to one on the planning system described herein, thenreceives advice as well as specific advertisements that makes sense forher particular needs. Additionally, in this vendor aspect of the systemsand methods described herein, the planning system allows vendors, as asingle vendor and/or as a vendor group, which preferably is representedby a team lead vendor, to provide, for example, coupons in the form ofpulled advertisements. Pulled advertisements may include, for example, auser choosing his/her own ads category. These features andfunctionalities of the systems and methods may create benefits includingcustomer loyalty.

The systems and methods in accordance with the principles of theinvention allows users to: consolidate everything important to theuser's life; share timelines or set their timelines as private; includeboth future events as well as past events; track businesses' and/orindividuals' own internal schedules; marry data from different sites,for example, an e-vite response to a birthday and a flight confirmationfor a vacation will all populate in the planning system systems andmethods; provide simple subscription features; follow the timelines ofpeople and companies; search functionality; search by vendor, school,person, etc.; attach pictures and other media or documents to thetimeline and accessed by users; subscribe to another's timeline; add aperson or vendor to an existing timeline, or can create a new timeline;internally schedule within a business, particularly useful for projectmanagement; plan events or promotions that pertain to multiple people;post coupons and other promotions to their timeline which users canfollow; subscribe to school events such as children's talent shows,field trips, or parent-teacher conferences; and/or have a mobileapplication that provides convenience for on-the-go scheduling; and/orutilize a sidebar app that allows the systems and methods associatedwith the planning system to synchronize with GOOGLE calendar, forexample.

The systems and methods further implement a teaming methodology thatconnects vendors and consumers. These systems and methods involvecreating opportunities for strategic alliances to occur to add value forvendors as well as consumers. For example, airline, rental car, andhotel companies partner through sites such as TRAVELOCITY. ButTRAVELOCITY requires a high-degree of maintenance, web hosting, andsupport to efficiently manage those three types of vendors and cannotintegrate. On TRAVELOCITY, for example, if one of those businessesdecides that it wants to create a new promotion with another business(for example, buy an airline ticket and receive 50% off Persian rugsfrom an importer), TRAVELOCITY, for example, can't accommodate thatpromotion.

In accordance with the systems and methods of the inventive planningsystem, dynamic teaming is created by utilizing a single sign-on withinthe same planning system and/or graphical user interface (GUI). Inaccordance with the principles of systems and methods described herein,businesses can provide savings for seasonal businesses looking to takeadvantage of visibility through new alliances or teams. For example,vendor promotions can include an ice cream discount with swimming poolpasses in the summer, or oil change discounts with tire coupons in thewinter. The systems and methods allow vendors to team. In particular,the vendors are not required to create a separate static website tomanage promotions and, instead, in accordance with the principles of theinvention, promotional teaming functions can be performed by using thesystems and methods associated with the planning system to create,build, and organize teams of different vendors. In certain aspects ofthe systems and methods, the teams of vendors can appear as a singlevendor through the use of the team lead vendor feature.

As described herein, the systems and methods have applicability acrossvarious aspects of life including enterprises, vendors, schools, andconsumers. Some relationship segments may include, for example,mother-child including, for example, targeting pregnant women,parent-student-school, for example, can target private schools, andstudent-college, for example, can target school alumni groups.

In certain implementations, the present invention is a system or methodof generating a visual presentation which is functional to visuallyorganize and present in graphic form planned future activities of a userof the system or method, arranged along a timeline. In this particularimplementation, every asset and/or every aspect of life may have atimeline. Examples of these assets and/or aspects may include a child, acar, a home, a printer, a server, a sport, a wedding, health, or anorgan. The system can also store future, current and/or past events ofthe user. The system or method may display subordinate aspects of theplanned activities, and may identify vendors of goods, services, or bothgoods and services for supporting the planned future activities. Theinvention may be thought of both as a method, which comprises steps tobe described hereinafter, or alternatively as a system, which comprisesa physical apparatus and associated peripherals, and programming capableof implementing the steps of the method. The physical apparatus maycomprise for example a data processor such as a personal computer, avisual output such as a display screen or computer monitor, ahuman-machine-interface (ex. mobile device), and conventional connectionapparatus for communicating to the internet. The human-machine-interfacemay comprise a keyboard, a computer mouse, a joystick, integrated orseparate touchscreen, any other physically manipulated device forentering commands into the processor, or any combination of these. Asthe physical apparatus of the system may be conventional in physicalform and in function, apart from programming which implements the stepsof the method, the physical apparatus need not be described in detail.

The invention is best explained with reference to images which mayappear on the visual output element of the processor, such as a monitoror other display screen. It will be understood that succeeding images orscreens may be navigated in conventional fashion.

The term advisor and/or system advisor can be used to describe a layerbetween the consumer and the vendor, which also can be referred to as auser-vendor interface. An advisor can include a vendor. The planningsystem as implemented in various aspects can serve as a layer between auser and a vendor. For example, the planning system can serve as a layerbetween the vendor and the consumer. In the implementation of an advisorconcept, the word “vendor” can also be used because it may be moreunderstandable to the public. However, for purposes of the planningsystem, an advisor can be referred to as a vendor where the vendorreceives a fee that can be zero or a number. As such, under certaincircumstances, if the fee is zero, that provider could be considered anadvisor, but if the fee is more than zero, it can be considered avendor. However, for purposes of the planning system, advisor and vendorcan be used interchangeably and the planning system contemplates systemsand methods that can either be for a fee or not for a fee.

The planning systems and methods are providing an abstract layer betweena timeline user (e.g., a consumer) and a vendor. This can also bereferred to as a virtual layer. This layer can also be referred to as anadvisor. Accordingly, the words “vendor” and “advisor” may be usedinterchangeably for purposes of the planning system and should in no waybe limiting. Therefore, an advisor can be an abstract layer that sitsbetween a consumer and a vendor. For example, the consumer no longerbuys goods directly from MACY'S, instead the consumer buys goods from avirtual MACY'S vendor within the planning system that is representingthe actual MACY'S.

As described herein, various events and event types may be used. Avendor timeline can have different types of events. They can be aone-time event or a fixed-date event. They can be re-occurring events.Seeded events that are dependent events or flexible events can getseeded by consumer customized parameters. The vendor may ask users toenter some additional data when timeline users want to subscribe toevents, such as birthdate, wedding date, baby delivery date. Vendors'entries can come from a variety of sources. Three (3) sources includevendors entering their own entries, such as events and coupons intotheir vendor timeline, vendors that have entries auto-populated by anauto-populate functionality, and/or vendors that provide two-way API forthe planning system to communicate with them, such as FACEBOOK, througha customized populate module.

Users may unsubscribe in various ways. Some examples include a timelineuser clicking on “My Vendor” and choosing the vendor it wants tounsubscribe. A pop-up will ask the user under what conditions do theywant to unsubscribe. Some conditions can include deleting all pastevents and terminating receiving any future events from the vendortimeline. This can be referred to as “delete past and no future feed”.Another condition may be that the timeline user does not want to receiveany new events from the vendor timeline. This can be referred to as“keep past but no future feed”.

Timeline sharing can be implemented in various ways. The timeline usercan share information with others by sharing its sub-timeline. Forexample, the vendors or the order of events that the user timeline usedduring her wedding can be shared with another friend by sharing thesub-timeline. The timeline user could allow a subordinate user, such asan underage child, who gets separated from the parent's oversight, thatgrown-up child can start his or her own timeline outside the parent'ssupervision. For example, a mother may manage the child's sub-timeline,but when the child grows up this feature allows the timeline to split toanother single entity.

Various vendor types are contemplated. These may include both singlevendors and/or team-lead vendors. A single vendor is associated with onevendor. The single vendor may choose to be or not to be a team member ofa team. The Team-lead vendor is associated with multiple vendors whoteamed up. It will be seamless to the timeline user. This means that theuser can subscribe to a team vendor in the same way as a single vendor.The user won't be aware of the existence of the multiple vendors thatteam up together “behind the scenes”. The use of the term “vendor” canapply to both a single vendor and/or a team vendor. From the timelineuser's perspective, a single vendor or a team vendor is the same becauseit is seamless to a user. The timeline user does not know that a vendoris a team vendor who has one or more vendors behind it. The vendors alsohave a vendor-user timeline.

The systems and methods contemplate various criteria for suggestingadvisors. The systems and methods may suggest advisors and/or vendors tothe user based upon user's chosen event types, keywords used in the userevent title and description, the user's previous purchases, theadvisor's or vendor's rank decided by users, the advisor's or vendor'spurchases, the most-purchased offers by other users, and/or specialoffers/advisors/vendors suggested by the admin.

In accordance with the systems and methods, an intelligent event-typesuggestion is provided. The system intelligently suggests standard eventtypes if the user did not choose the event type. To do so, it canpossibly use the following techniques: 1) suggest event types by usingkeywords that are found in the title or description of the event; 2)suggest event types by analyzing user's previous purchases; 3) suggestevent types by analyzing the event types that user has previouslychosen; and/or 4) if the system could not find a way to suggest an eventtype, it can occur to the user to explicitly choose an event type forgetting better results from the planning system.

Criteria for suggesting advisors is also contemplated. The system cansuggest to the users based on the following: 1) user's chosen eventtypes; 2) keywords used in user event title and description; and/or 3)user's previous purchases.

In accordance with the principles of the invention, consumers can shareadvice or a portion of their timeline with other consumers as knowledgesharing. Vendors can have a central place for their offering timeline indifferent trades and track historical coupons and compare it with othervendors. Vendors can team up dynamically and create a joint-venturetimeline with joint coupons. The framework is a one-stop shop. Users andconsumers can plan and track life events in one main timeline. Users andconsumers have the ability to group events into different timelinecategories. Synchronization is offered with well-known calendars.Vendors may offer advice and/or coupons and a vendor timeline andclassify themselves as an advisor in a service or trade.

Consumers can subscribe to an advisor timeline in one stage of life andunsubscribe from an advisor in another stage of life. As such, thesystems and methods are a one-stop shop for subscription andsubscriptions to vendors are ones that the user chooses based uponinterest, religion, belief. The systems and methods also provide forauto-populating or a mail-grabber. Mail-grabber or auto-populate usesvendors' advertising e-mails to match registered vendors and theplanning system. With the e-mails that the mail-grabbers orauto-populate algorithm send to users, after matching e-mails, thesystem will create one event for each e-mail and put it in the vendortimeline automatically. Also the planning system will publish the vendortimeline automatically so all subscribers will see the new event intheir main timeline or sub-timeline. The three (3) types of vendorsinclude a vendor that creates its own event in the planning system, avendor for which its coupons appear in the planning system with theauto-populate module, and a vendor that provides a RSS feed or an API tobring their offerings/events to the planning system.

Referring first to FIG. 1, there is shown a screen 10 which isrepresentative of screens which may be used to implement the methods andsystems described herein. It should be understood that the screen 10 andother screens illustrated herein provide examples for purposes ofexplaining the invention, and should not be construed in a limitingsense. The screen 10 may depict a representation of a one month calendar12, any number of subject matter selection icons such as the sixselection icons 14, 16, 18, 20, 22, 24, and at least one timeline suchas the two timelines 26, 28. The subject matter selection icons eachrepresent a different timeline.

Each timeline 26 or 28 is in the form of a serial visual element such asa horizontal bar. Other visual representations are contemplatedincluding, vertical. Each timeline 26, 28 pertain to one aspect of thelife of the user, the subject matter of each being different from thatof every other timeline. In the examples presented herein, the timeline26 is directed to a child of the user; the timeline 28 is directed tothe work or job of the user; a timeline 42 is directed to the house orother residence or property of the user; a timeline 44 is related to apregnancy of a member of the social circle of the user; a timeline 46 isrelated to an automobile or other motor vehicle of the user; and atimeline 48 is related to a social occasion to be undertaken within thesocial circle of the user, and more specifically, a wedding of a memberof the social circle of the user. In most cases, the social circle ofthe user will be a family member, but may of course be friends and otherassociates of the user.

Legends 30, 32, 34, 36 may appear proximate the bar of a timeline suchas the timeline 26. These legends 30, 32, 34, 36 may be connected totheir associated bar with location along the timeline 26 being in serialrelation to indicate the order in which the subject matter is to beaddressed. Alternatively stated, location of the timeline icon along thetimeline represents a point in time when a specific subordinate activityor aspect of the general activity or aspect of life represented by thatparticular timeline is to be addressed by the person using the screen 10and associated method of generating a visual presentation. Location ofevents called out by legends 30, 32, 34, 36 may be arbitrarily spacedapart along the timeline 26, such as evenly spaced apart, oralternatively may be spaced apart in a manner reflecting proportionalityof magnitude of time intervals intended to occur between events calledout by the legends 30, 32, 34, 36.

Regardless of the selected form, legends or other graphical deviceprovide a plurality of timeline icons disposed along the timelinedisplay, wherein each timeline icon, such as the timeline icons 30, 32,34, 36, represents a subordinate aspect pertaining to the planned futureactivity. In the example of the timeline 26, the planned future activityis those activities which pertain to a child, this being indicated bythe legend or indicia 38. Similarly, the legend 40 indicates that thesecond timeline 28 actively being displayed is that pertaining to thework or vocation of the user.

In the screen 10, two timelines 26, 28 are active, or are beingdisplayed. Other timelines (not shown) may be stored in memory and maybe summoned by invoking appropriate ones of the selection icons 14, 16,18, 20, 22, 24. Any number of timelines may be made active at the user'sdiscretion. Timelines such as the timelines 26, 28 may be activated ordeactivated by for example clicking on the appropriate selection icon14, 16, 18, 20, 22, or 24 using a computer mouse associated with theprocessor.

FIG. 2 shows a new screen 41 in which additional timelines 42, 44, 46,48 being active in addition to the timelines 26, 28 of the screen 10 ofFIG. 1. The additional timelines 42, 44, 46, 48 each have respectivetimeline icons such as the timeline icons 50, 52, 54, to name but arepresentative few. The management programming which administers thenovel method or system is functional to selectively display and concealor cancel any of the timelines by user manipulation of thehuman-machine-interface, such as by clicking on a predetermined symbol,such as the selection icons 14, 16, 18, 20, 22, 24 displayed on thedisplay screen using a computer mouse. Control of the number oftimelines displayed, such as the timelines 26, 28, 42, 44, 46, 48, istherefore in the hands of the user. Fewer active timelines, such as seenin FIG. 1, will reduce visual clutter of the screen 10. More activetimelines, displayed simultaneously, such as seen in FIG. 2, willmaximize the number of aspects of life to be planned. This latterfeature may be useful for example in identifying potential scheduling orother conflicts.

The calendar 12 may display the current month or may be linked to aselected date to show the full month for a month other than the currentmonth. The current day may be highlighted or otherwise emphasized, asexemplified by the solid background 56.

Turning now to FIG. 3, the novel system contemplates provision of atleast one advisory icon. A new screen 58 has been generated for exampleby clicking on the “Advisor” icon 60 of FIG. 2. With calendar 12,selection icons 14, 16, 18, 20, 22, 24, and timelines 26, 28, 42, 44,46, 48 omitted for visual clarity, the screen 58 shows a command icon 62for creating an advisory icon, a command icon 64 for deleting anadvisory icon, and a command icon 66 for editing a created advisoryicon. Fillable spaces 68, 70, 72 are provided respectively, for enteringthe identity of a commercial vendor of goods or services or both, theactual name of the vendor, and which category or identity will be usedwith this vendor. Vendors are selected from among those who arepre-approved by a host provider (or not) and provide information from aweb source, and who commercially offer goods or services to the generalpublic. In conducting general internet searching, the user may limitvendors to those offering goods and services which pertain to thesubordinate aspect of the planned future activity. The resultingadvisory icon contains data corresponding to advertising content, whichis transmitted over the internet from the web source. Any number ofadvisory icons may be generated in this manner. Advisory icons may belinked to the subject matter of any selected timeline, such as thetimeline 26.

FIG. 4 shows a screen 70 generally corresponding to the screen 58 ofFIG. 3, but differing in that it is also populated by the timeline 26,pertaining to a child. It will be seen that the user has entered intothe fillable space 68 a vendor known as “kaplan”, the formal name usedon the internet by this vendor being “Kaplan.com”, entered into thefillable space 70, and a category of “school advisor” having beenentered into the fillable space 72. An advertiser can cooperate withother advertisers to cross brand each other's goods. For example,Kaplan.com could provide information for a related vendor such asCreativity.com and vice versa.

Below the timeline 26 appears two legends 74 which offer the user goods,services, and proposed events or items. These goods and services areoffered by the vendor Kaplan.com. The legends 74 are automaticallygenerated when that vendor is summoned using an advisory icon which hasbeen generated using the command icon 62. The management programming ofthe novel method and system is functional to display at least one of theadvisory icons by clicking on a predetermined symbol displayed on thedisplay screen, such as the advisor icon 60 (see FIG. 2) using thecomputer mouse.

Part of the process of generating the legends 74, which may be regardedas an advisory icon, is a screening process in which the managementprogramming which has been entered into the processor to administer thenovel method is functional to apply predetermined acceptance criteria tothe advisory icons. Predetermined acceptance criteria may includedetermination of geographic proximity of vendors to the premises to beused by the user in engaging in a planned future activity and otherqualifications which may be selected by the user or provided by themanagement programming or both. Other criteria may include cost andprice considerations, delivery or lead time for goods and services, andthe nature of specialized products, to name but a few. The concept ofthe advisory icon tailors vendors to the personal situation of the userof the novel system.

The preceding disclosure can be visualized by the advisor linking theuser with the appropriate vendor, USER→ADVISOR/PLANNING SYSTEMVENDOR←VENDOR. For example, the USER can be a consumer, theADVISOR/PLANNING SYSTEM VENDOR can be the virtual middle layer, and theVENDOR is an actual vendor or the auto-populate functionality. Thevirtual layer between a user and a vendor can be referred to as anadvisor or a planning system vendor. The advisor can be a planningsystem vendor or user. The vendors utilized and referred to in theplanning system are not actual vendors. They are virtual vendors thatthe planning system is presenting. It also contemplated that additionalmodes of information transfer can be achieved between the parties otherthan that shown above, for example a vendor may receive usableinformation from the user as the user completes its timeline.

Potential vendors who fail to meet the acceptance criteria are inhibitedfrom participation in the advisory icons. This elimination of manypotential vendors results in qualification of a pool of potentialvendors who meet criteria desirable to the user; thereby improving thesearch experience of the user.

It will be seen from FIG. 4 that the timeline display, the timelineicons, and the advisory icon are all displayed simultaneously on thescreen 70 or other visual output.

The management programming which administers the novel method and systemis functional to generate, display, delete, and conceal any of theadvisory icons by user manipulation of the human-machine-interface.

The invention may be thought of as a method of generating subject mattersuch as the content of the screens shown in FIGS. 1-7. The method maycomprise a step of providing a data processor having a visual output, ahuman-machine interface, and an internet connection, and a step ofproviding management programming loaded into the data processor, whichmanagement programming is disposed to generate a display on the visualoutput of the data processor, wherein the visual output comprises atimeline display comprising at least one serial visual elementrepresenting at least one timeline comprising a time interval duringwhich at least one planned future activity is to be performed, and atleast one advisory icon, wherein the advisory icon displays a commercialoffering of at least one of a publicly available commercial good or apublicly available commercial service pertaining to the subordinateaspect of the planned future activity, wherein the subject matter of theadvisory icon contains data transmitted over the internet from a websource of the vendor of the commercial good or commercial service.

The format of visual effects such as timelines may be varied. FIGS. 5,6, and 7 each show an alternative format for displaying subject matter.In particular with FIG. 7, some additional functional aspects arepresent. For example, the user is able to select which timelines fromthe list of chosen timelines it would like to display by “checking” theboxes 80 (or the boxes located on the timeline 85) next to therepresentative timelines they would like to display. This allows theuser to integrate different timeline together into a timeline summary81. When a number of timelines are integrated, the timeline summary mayinclude reference symbols 82 to represent a particular event is takingplace at a particular time in the timeline summary. The referencesymbols are then defined in an alternate portion in the form of a “key”83 so that the complete event descriptions, which correspond to areference symbol, can be shown more clearly. As also shown in FIG. 7,the user is able to select which timelines it would like to add tohis/her life by selecting from all available timelines 84. Furthermore,the user can display or hide and web host generated timelines 85.

As described above, each timeline pertains to one aspect of the life ofthe user. The subject matter of each timeline being different from thatof each other timeline. Each timeline can be selected and deselected,such as by clicking on a predetermined symbol. As further describedabove, one way of selecting and deselecting each timeline may be throughthe use of the predetermined symbol, such as subject matter selectionicons. A predetermined symbol and/or an icon is a representation forselecting and/or deselecting each timeline. Predetermined symbols and/oricons can be any type of representation for a user interface to select,deselect and/or summon a timeline. Other ways of selecting, deselectingand/or summoning each of the timelines can include, for example, insteadof, in addition to, or in combination with the predetermined symbolsand/or icons, for example, tabs, horizontal tabs, vertical tabs,elongated features, overlapping features, shapes, geometric shapes,and/or other displayable interfaces for interfacing with a user,including, for example, any type of user such as a timeline user, avendor, and advisor. For example, as described in more detail below, theicons can be represented as a series of horizontal elongated tabs thatappear in an overlapping representation. As described above, the iconcan have a visual representation and/or text that may relate to thesubject matter of the timeline. As described below, the icon is shown ifthe form of a tab and the tab can include a subject or title. The tabcan be selected and/or deselected to display and/or not display thetimeline.

As described above, a calendar, for example, can be displayed. Thecalendar may contain all the events on the user. All the events on thecalendar can be separated by subject matter through the use of thesubject matter timelines. As such the calendar can be referred to as amain calendar and can also be represented in other display format suchas a main timeline.

As described above, legends or timeline icons 30, 32, 34, 36, forexample, represent a subordinate aspect pertaining to an activity. Thoseactivities on a timeline can be referred to as entries, events orotherwise, and are described in more detail throughout this application.

As described above, vendors and/or advisors can be linked to the subjectmatter of any timeline. Any number of each can be linked to a timeline.An advisor and/or vendor can cooperate with other advertisers and/orvendors to cross brand each other's goods and/or services. For example,the methods and systems contemplate the use of a single vendor and/ormultiple vendors cooperating, also, referred to as teaming and/or a teamvendor. As discussed above with reference to FIG. 4, screen 70 shows theadvisor vendor display. The advisor Kaplan 68/vendor Kaplan.com 70 canprovide information for related vendors, as shown on the vendor displayin FIG. 4. For example, the vendor timeline icon “Gifted & TalentedChecklist” may provide information for the related vendors shown at 74.As illustrated in FIG. 7, the user through the user display can selectand/or unselect the timelines for display at 80, search the list ofavailable advisors (e.g., find an advisor or vendor) at 84 and/or view alist of user chosen advisors (e.g., my advisor or vendor list) at 85.The list of available advisors (e.g. find a vendor) at 84 includes asingle vendor (e.g. pregnancy.com) or an advisor and/or vendor that iscooperating with other vendors by selections under the “list ofavailable advisors” 84 as, e.g., “AOL WeddingAdvisor”, “AOLHomeAdvisor.”For example, on the user display at FIG. 7 “AOLHomeAdvisor” is displayedas one selection, but may include information for at least one relatedvendor, which is displayed only on the vendor display, at FIG. 4,display 74. The vendor, for example, AOLHomeAdvisor, selectable by theuser in display FIG. 7, can be referred to a team lead vendor. On thevendor side, the example uses Kaplan as the team lead vendor. The teamlead vendor may include one or more vendors. A timeline user may selectand/or unselect single vendors (e.g., pregnancy.com, FIG. 7) and/or teamlead vendors (e.g., AOLHomeAdvisor, FIG. 7). An advisor can include avendor, but the vendor can be a vendor of goods and services for zeropayment and/or for payment of money. As shown in FIG. 7, the vendor is avendor user of the methods and systems by way of the advisor/vendordisplay. The advisor/vendor are linked to the subject matter of the usertime by the user selecting from the list of available advisors (find avendor) and by selecting from that list advisors the choice or selectionappears in the list of user chosen advisors (my vendors).

The methods can generate a visual presentation which is functional tovisually organize and present planned future activities of a user of themethod, to display subordinate aspects of the planned future activities,and to identify vendors of goods, services, or both goods and servicesfor supporting the planned future activities.

A data processor has a visual output, a human-machine interface, and aninternet connection. The management programming is loaded into the dataprocessor. The visual output of the data processor displays a timelinedisplay with at least one serial visual element representing at leastone timeline comprising a time interval during which at least oneplanned future activity is to be performed, a plurality of timelineicons disposed along the timeline display, where each timeline iconrepresents a subordinate aspect pertaining to the planned futureactivity, and location of the timeline icon along the timelinerepresents a time when the subordinate aspect is to be addressed by theuser.

At least one advisory icon can display a commercial offering of at leastone of a publicly available commercial good or a publicly availablecommercial service pertaining to the subordinate aspect of the plannedfuture activity. Although non-commercial goods, services and/or advisecan be coffered as well. The subject matter of the advisory icon cancontain data transmitted over the internet from a web source of thevendor.

At least one command icon can be displayed using thehuman-machine-interface. Input from at least one of a user or a vendorrelating to the displayed command icon can be received through thehuman-machine interface;

At least one advisory icon can be created using the input received fromat least one of a user or a vendor. The advisory icon can includefillable spaces for entering, for example, the identity data of acommercial vendor of goods or services or both having advertisingcontent which is transmittable over the internet, the actual name of theentered vendor, and a category or identity of the entered vendor, suchthat the resulting advisory icon contains data corresponding to theadvertising content.

Potential vendors can be screened by applying predetermined acceptancecriteria.

At least one of the fillable spaces can be filled with the identity of acommercial vendor which has met the predetermined acceptance criteria.The timeline display, the timeline icons, and the advisory icon withvendors which have been filled in the fillable spaces can be displayedsimultaneously on the visual output. The visual output can display arepresentation of a calendar. The visual output can display a pluralityof timelines each pertaining to subject matter different from that ofevery other timeline. Any of the timelines and/or advisory icons can bedisplayed and/or concealed by user manipulation of thehuman-machine-interface. Potential vendors can be screened by applyingpredetermined acceptance criteria such as geographic proximity ofvendors to the premises to be used by the user in engaging in a plannedfuture activity.

One timeline can be dedicated to activities pertaining to the work, theresidence, at least one motor vehicle, at least one child, a pregnancyin the social circle of the user, a social occasion to be undertaken bythe social circle of the user, and/or a wedding.

The system described herein can be referred to as a personal and/or userplanning system. The system can receive input through a human-machineinterface from at least one user or vendor and create from the input atleast one timeline having subject matter associated with an aspect ofthe life the at least one user or vendor. The timeline can include atleast one timeline icon related to the subject matter of the timeline.The system can also create from the input at least one advisory iconassociated with the at least one timeline. The advisory icon can includeadvertising or promotional information relating to a vendor, and can beselectively associated with the at least one timeline based on apredetermined acceptance criteria. The at least one timeline can bedisplayed along with the at least one timeline icon and the at least oneadvisory icon associated with the at least one timeline.

The users and/or vendors can create multiple timelines and each of themultiple timelines can be associated with a different category or aspectof the life of the users and/or vendors. The users and/or vendors canadd to or remove from their timeline(s) at least one timeline icon or atleast one advisory icon created by another user or vendor. The vendor(s)can create, add to, or subtract from a timeline for purposes ofcross-promotion.

Advertisements may be presented in accordance with the settings enteredby one or more advisors as described herein. An advertisement may bepresented concurrently with one or more timelines on the display, andthe advertisement may be selected based on timeline icons of the teamtimeline. In one or more embodiments, advertisements presented in theside panel may be only those for user-selected advisors, e.g. theadvisor belonging to one or more of the timelines presently in view.

FIG. 8A shows an exemplary system deployment view at 30000 forimplementing the systems and methods described herein. System 30000includes an integrated data server 30002, a computer system 30004 for awebsite implementation, a computing system 30006 for a mobile siteimplementation, a vendor personal computer 30008, a user personalcomputer 30010, a user mobile 30012, and a vendor mobile 30014. Each ofthese devices in system 30000 may have two-way communicationtherebetween for implementing the methods and functionalities describedherein.

This diagram shows how the planning system different components respondto End-Users requests. All Users, including both Timeline Users andVendors can reach planning system from almost all common devicesincluding PC, Laptop, Tablet and Smartphones; it means any devices thathave access to internet and can run a web browser can be used as anentry point to this planning system. The systems and methods offerdifferent web UI for desktop, mobile and tablet, all of these UI willaccess the planning system core web services using AJAX that interactwith provided business logic. This business logic will use a datamanagement layer to store and retrieve information to and from anintegrated database.

FIG. 8B shows a representative timeline user architectural diagram. Thisdiagram demonstrates overall view of the system working parts at“Timeline User” side. Timeline Users can reach Planning system fromalmost all common devices including PC, Laptop, Tablet and Smartphones.It means any devices that have access to internet and can run a webbrowser can be used as an entry point for Timeline users, several web UIfor desktop, mobile and tablet can be used by Timeline User, those WebUI will access to the planning system core web services using AJAX andinteract with provided business logic, including Events, Sub-Timelines,Subscribed Vendors, Calendar, Multiple Timeline View Modes (ParallelView, Calendar View, Hourly View and Flow View), buy coupons and offers,sharing sub-timelines and configuring and choosing desiredAdvertisements. These business logic will use a data management layer tostore and retrieve information to and from an integrated database.

FIG. 8C shows a vendor user architectural diagram. This diagramdemonstrates an overall view of the system working parts at “VendorUser” Vendor side. Vendor Users can reach the planning system fromalmost all common devices including PC, Laptop, Tablet and Smartphones.It means any devices that have access to internet and can run a webbrowser can be used as an entry point for Vendor users, several web UIfor desktop, mobile and tablet can be used by them, those Web UI willaccess to the planning system core web services using AJAX and interactwith provided business logic, including Vendor Timelines Management,Events/Offers Management, Sales Management, Teaming, Advertisement forCustomers and other Vendors and publishing Vendor Timelines tocustomers; these business logic will use a data management layer tostore and retrieve information to and from an integrated database.

9A demonstrates an overall view of a block diagram of the actionsavailable to the “Timeline User” 8000 in the planning system andmethods.

Block 8000 shows the Timeline User overall and the actions available tothe timeline user.

Block 8001 shows the Register/Sign-in/Sign-out actions.

Block 8002 shows the Create/Manage zero or more “Timeline User” Eventactions.

Block 8003 shows the Create/manage zero or more “Sub-Timeline” actions.

Block 8004 shows the Find/Subscribe/Unsubscribe “Vendor Timeline”actions.

Block 8005 shows the Purchase goods/services through offers and couponsvia third party vendors or from the planning system actions.

Block 8006 shows the Share/Copy portion of his/her “Sub-Timeline”with/to another “Timeline User” actions.

Block 8007 shows the Become a “Vendor User” actions.

Block 8008 shows the Sync his/her “Sub Timelines” with other calendarprovider services such as Google, Facebook, etc. actions.

Block 8009 shows the Choose his/her own Pop-up Ads actions.

FIG. 9B shows actions of Timeline User such as registration, sign in,sign out and profile editing. FIG. 9B is a blow out of Timeline Useraction 8001.

Block 8001 shows the Timeline User: Register/sign in/sign out actions.

Block 8010 shows the Fill out the registration form actions.

Block 8011 shows the Fill out sign up form and login actions.

Block 8012 shows the Enter extended profile information actions.

Block 8013 shows the Sign out and close the session actions.

FIG. 9C shows all actions for event creation/editing/search, uploadingMedias, associating events with different “Sub-Timeline”. FIG. 9C is ablow out of User Timeline action 8002.

Block 8002 shows the “Timeline User: Create/Manage zero or more“Timeline User” Event actions.

Block 8014 shows the Create/Edit/Delete event by providing title,description, type, color, date/time range, etc. actions.

Block 8015 shows the Add/Delete zero or more media files to eventactions.

Block 8016 shows the Assign/un-assign events to zero or moreSub-Timeline actions.

Block 8017 shows the Add/Edit multiple event types actions.

Block 8018 shows the Filter events by keyword actions.

Block 8019 shows the Filter events by color actions.

Block 8020 shows the Filter events by type actions.

Block 8021 shows the Filter events by vendor actions.

Block 8022 shows the Filter events by Sub-Timeline actions.

Block 8023 shows the Filter events by date actions.

Block 8024 shows the View or download event media actions.

Block 8025 shows the Edit events in Main-Timeline/Sub-Timeline actions.

Block 8026 shows the Timeline User can do all standard Calendaractivities actions.

Block 8027 shows the Timeline User” can do all standard social mediaactivities actions.

FIG. 9D shows the process of creating and editing Sub-Timelines. ASub-Timeline can be created from scratch. Also the filtered events inMain Timeline can be saved as brand new Sub-Timeline. FIG. 9D is a blowout of Timeline User action 8003.

Block 8003 shows all Timeline User, Create/manage/manage Sub-Timelineactions.

Block 8028 shows all Create/Edit timeline by providing title, color,date range, etc. actions.

Block 8029 shows all Show/hide/view Sub-Timeline in parallel viewactions.

Block 8030 shows all Switch back and forth from calendar view mode totimeline view mode for both main-timeline and sub-timeline actions.

Block 8031 shows all Scroll Sub-Timeline simultaneously byday/month/year and hourly increments actions.

Block 8032 shows all Save filtered events in current main timeline asnew Sub-Timeline actions.

FIG. 9E shows the process of subscribing to a Vendor Timeline andproviding value to possible service scope parameters or seeded eventsquestions. FIG. 9E is a blow out of Timeline User action 8004.

Block 8004 shows all Timeline User: Find/Subscribe/Unsubscribe “VendorTimeline” actions.

Block 8033 shows all search for a specific vendor by keyword actions.

Block 8034 shows all Select a vendor to subscribe to by providingoptional date range, target Sub-Timeline and select the option for autoupdate mode actions.

Block 8035 shows all The planning system will update Main-Timeline andselected target Sub-Timeline with timeline events actions.

Block 8036 shows all The planning system will add new upcoming eventsand offer from vendor timeline into Timeline-User's Sub-Timeline if autoupdate option is selected actions.

Block 8037 shows all system will suggest some vendor based on TimelineUser profile and/or past activities actions.

Block 8038 shows all Timeline User can select a vendor timeline from “MyVendor” list actions.

Block 8039 shows all Timeline User can disable or enable auto update,change target Sub-Timeline, or unsubscribe from the vendor actions.

Block 8040 shows all Timeline User can provide rating and comment aboutvendor timelines and offers actions.

FIG. 9F shows the process of purchase goods/services through offers andcoupons via third party vendors or from the planning system. In bothcases the Timeline User will review the offers within the events thendepending on the offer date, the user can purchase the Good or Services.FIG. 9F is a blow out of Timeline User action 8005.

Block 8005 shows the Timeline User: purchase goods/services throughoffers and coupons via third party vendors actions.

Block 8041 shows all Timeline User can review other Timeline User'scomments & ratings about a Vendor its events and offers actions.

Block 8042 shows all Timeline User can purchase a vendor goods andservices directly from the planning system actions.

Block 8043 shows all Timeline User can buy other offers with in theevent by redirecting to vendor purchasing portal actions.

Block 8044 shows all Timeline User will receive offers/coupons and canuse them per vendor guidance actions.

Block 8045 shows all Vendor User will be notified for discountedpurchases by email and also can see sales reports online in the planningsystem actions.

FIG. 9G is a diagram that describes how Timeline Users can share aportion of their Sub-Timeline with other member by granting certainpermissions to target Timeline User. This concept covers a scenario of amother managing her child timeline until the child grows up and themother could copy the child Sub-Timeline to the adult child account.Another scenario is when an executive assistant manages her boss'saccount. The boss could grant certain permissions to his executiveassistant for managing his account. FIG. 9G is a blow out of TimelineUser action 8006.

Block 8006 shows all Timeline User: Share/Copy portion of his/her“Sub-Timeline” with/to another “Timeline User” actions.

Block 8046 shows all Select a Sub-Timeline to share with other membersactions.

Block 8047 shows all Select all or some events or provide date range ofevents that need to be shared. Select target user that events need to beshared with actions.

Block 8048 shows all Select and grant permission on the sharedSub-Timeline (read/write/delete/upload media/etc.) actions.

Block 8049 shows all As target user accept the granted permission to theshared or copied Sub-Timeline actions.

Block 8050 shows all Select a Sub-Timeline and see the list of TimelineUsers that have share access to his/her Sub-Timeline actions.

Block 8051 shows all Change/revoke target user access permission onhis/her Sub-Timeline actions.

FIG. 9H is a diagram that describes the process of synching basiccalendar with major calendar provider such as Facebook, Google, Outlook,etc. Synchronization can be two-way and can be between external calendarand user Main Timeline. Synchronization can also be between the externalcalendar and a “Sub-Timeline”. FIG. 9H is a blow out of Timeline Useraction 8008.

Block 8008 shows all Timeline User: Synch user timelines with othercalendar providers actions.

Block 8052 shows all Select a popular calendar provider such as: google,Outlook, Facebook for synchronization actions.

Block 8053 shows all Select or create a Sub-Timeline to synch with thirdparty calendar actions.

Block 8054 shows all Select synchronization date range and also selectone-way or tow-way synch mode actions.

Block 8055 shows all The planning system will ask the Timeline User eachtime before synchronization to Authenticate to third party calendarprovider actions.

Block 8056 shows all The planning system will synch Timeline User'sSub-Timeline with third party calendar based on defined criteriaactions.

FIG. 9I is a diagram that demonstrates all important actions that theVendor User can do in the planning system. This diagram is referenced as8057.

Block 8057 shows all Vendor User Overall and the action available to thevendor user.

Block 8058 shows all Register/Sign-in/Sign-out actions.

Block 8059 shows all Create/Manage “Vendor Timeline” actions.

Block 8060 shows all Create/Manage Events/Offers actions.

Block 8061 shows all Join a team actions.

Block 8098 shows all Creating team and invite others actions.

Block 8062 shows all Create/Manage Target Ads for events actions.

Block 8063 shows all View/report Sales actions.

Block 8064 shows all Compare historical coupons/offers by other “VendorUser” actions.

Block 8065 shows all Vendor 2 Vendor Advertisement actions.

Block 8099 shows all Create Seeded events actions.

Block 8097 shows all Vendor User or Admin create auto populated VendorTimeline actions.

FIG. 9J is a diagram that displays creation/editing/deleting of VendorTimeline. Each Vendor can have one or many Timelines. These Timelinescould be seeded and have service scope parameters or they can be simpletimeline with static events. FIG. 9J is a blow out of Vendor User action8059.

Block 8059 shows all Vendor User: Create/Manage “Vendor Timeline”actions.

Block 8066 shows all Create/Edit a Sub-Timeline by Setting title, color,category/subcategory, Start and End date, etc. actions.

Block 8067 shows all Set service scope parameters for vendor timeline.This will help Timeline user during subscription time to see if theymeet the service scope criteria Example: age range, gender, servicelocation . . . example: age range, Gender, etc. actions.

Block 8068 shows all Notify Timeline User during subscription whethershe/he meet the selected vendor timeline's “service scope parameters”actions.

Block 8069 shows all Select a Sub-Timeline to delete and the planningsystem will delete all its associated events actions.

FIG. 9K is a diagram that shows how events in Vendor Timelines can beseeded. This means there are events that their dates are dependent onother event dates. For example child delivery date can be a seededparameter to set all the events that need to take place before the childbirth. For example if a “Timeline User” such as a pregnant ladysubscribes to a vendor that provides goods and services for before andafter pregnancy, that vendor needs to know the baby delivery date. Thisevent date will change all the previous relative dates for this vendortimeline. When user provides the initial parameter, the vendor withseeded events will update all his relative and dependent events andprovide a customized timeline for this mother. FIG. 9K is a blow out ofVendor User action 8099.

Block 8099 shows all Vendor: Create seeded events by vendor actions.

Block 8070 shows all When creating/editing an event chose the event typeto be seeded (Dependent event) actions.

Block 8071 shows all Select a date & time field from Timeline Userextended Profile or create a new date & time field and use as targetdate field actions. An example may include a wedding party date.

Block 8072 shows all Provide the relative number of day/hour/min thatneeds to be added/subtracted to/from each seeded event date. Example: 3days before wedding

Block 8073 shows all Based on Timeline User provided date for a majorevent, the planning system will calculate all dependent event date.These dependent event are part of the vendor Timeline that the UserTimeline is subscribed to actions.

FIG. 9L is a diagram that shows how vendors can compare theircompetitor's events/coupons/offers in a timeline with their owntimeline. Vendors could compare the competitor offers in the past andpredict their competitor's offer in future in a very clean userinterface of parallel Sub-timelines. FIG. 9L is a blow out of VendorUser action 8064.

Block 8064 shows all Vendor User: Compare historicalEvents/Offers/Coupons by other “Vendor User actions.

Block 8074 shows all Login/Switch to “Vendor User”'s “Timeline User”side of the house actions. (Note—Each “Vendor User” has a “TimelineUser” account.)

Block 8075 shows all Search and Subscribe to a competitor Vendor andassign it to a “Sub-Timeline” actions. (Repeat this for all competitorvendors)

Block 8076 shows all Subscribe to his own “Vendor User” and assign it toa “Sub-timeline” named ex. “ZZZ” actions.

Block 8077 shows all Compare the competitor's Event/Coupons/Offeringside by side in parallel sub-timelines to “ZZZ” sub-timeline actions.

FIG. 9M shows the Vendor 2 Vendor advertisement. In the planning systemvendors could create advertisement for other vendor through a uniforminterface. FIG. 9M is a blow out of Vendor User action 8065.

Block 8065 shows all Vendor User: Vendor 2 Vendor Advertisement (b2b)actions.

Block 8078 shows all Create Advertisement by selecting a Media file,based on Target Vendor Timeline's Category and Sub Category for bothSingle Vendor and Team Vendor actions. The Category and Sub Categorywere selected when Target Vendor created his/her Vendor Timeline.

Block 8079 shows all View other vendor Ads based on similar VendorTimeline Category and Sub Category actions.

Block 8080 shows all The vendor Ads will be used for Vendor teamingthrough the planning system actions.

FIG. 9N depicts joining a team. This sequence diagram shows the step bystep process for a vendor joining an existing team of one or manyvendors. FIG. 9N is a blow out of Vendor User action 8061.

Block 8061 shows all Vendor User: Join a team actions. The “User”, “TeamMember”, “The planning system” and “8061: Team-lead Vendor” are eachrepresented by a column with a broken/dashed line extending along thecolumn. The actions between each of the four (4) are shown by lines withdirectional arrow head shows input(s), output(s) and action(s)to/from/between each of the four (4) columns. According to the exemplaryflow diagrammed in FIG. 9N, the team member requests a list of availableteams utilizing the planning system. The planning system provides theteam member with a list of the available teams. From that, the teammember can choose and review desired teams. Utilizing the planningsystem, the team member can request to join the team. This request goesfrom the team member to the team lead vendor. The team lead vendorreceives the request to join and can review and, if desired, can approvethe request. If the team lead vendor approves the request, the teammember is added to the team. The team lead vendor utilizing the planningsystem notifies the team member that it has been approved as a member ofthe team, this can be referred to as becoming a team-member vendor.

The team member can also through utilizing the planning system receive alist of shared team timelines. The team member can add vendor/its ownteam member events and offers into the team timeline utilizing theplanning system. The team lead vendor can also add events and offersinto the team timeline. The team lead vendor manages the team timelineand upon the approval of the team lead vendor, the team timeline can bepublished utilizing the planning system. The team lead vendor is thelead for auditing and making the team timeline available for users.Preferably, the actions are in the sole control of the team lead vendor.Team members cannot perform these actions. Utilizing the planningsystem, the vendor is provided in the list of available vendorsaccessible by the users. The vendor may be a single vendor and/or a teamvendor. The user through the planning system can review the list ofavailable vendors through the user display and subscribe and/orunsubscribe to a vendor. By subscribing to the vendor, the user bringsthe vendor timeline into his or her life. The user can bring the vendortimeline into the user interface as part of the main timeline aloneand/or in combination with one or more sub-timelines. Again, the vendorcan be a single vendor and/or team vendor.

The actions shown in FIG. 9N include:

Team-member Vendor<->the planning system;

Request for list of available teams;

Receive list of available team;

Team-Member Vendor;

Choose & review desired team;

Team-member Vendor<->the planning system;

Request Team-Lead vendor to join her/his team;

The planning system<->Team-Lead Vendor;

Receive join request;

Team-Lead Vendor;

Review & Approve;

The planning system<->Team-Lead Vendor;

Add new team member;

Team-Member<->The planning system;

Notify vendor as being approved as Team-Member vendor;

Receive list of shared team timelines;

Add vendor events and offers in team timeline;

The Planning system<->Team-Lead vendor;

Add events and offers in team timeline;

Publish team timeline;

The planning system;

Audit and make team timeline available for Timeline Users;

Timeline User;

Provide the vendor (Single-Vendor or Team-Vendor) in the list ofavailable vendors; and/or

Subscribe to a vendor (Single-Vendor or Team-Vendor) and bring thevendor timeline to his/her life.

FIG. 9O depicts a sequence diagram that shows the step by step processof creating team of vendors to work with each other and provide good orservices. This diagram also shows inviting team members and creating aTeam Timeline. FIG. 9O is a blow out of Vendor User action 8098.

Block 8098 shows Vendor User creating team and invite others actions.The “Timeline User”, “Team Member”, “The planning system” and “8098:Team Lead vendor” are each represented by a column with a broken/dashedline extending along the column. The actions between each of the four(4) is shown by lines with directional arrow heads shows input(s),output(s) and action(s) to/from/between each of the four (4) columns. Asshown by the flow diagram of FIG. 9O, the Team-Lead vendor can create ateam utilizing the planning system. The Team-Lead vendor requests avendor list utilizing the planning system and is provided with a list ofvendors that are part of the planning system. The Team-Lead vendor canview the list of vendors and can send invitations to the vendorsselected. As a result of those invitations, utilizing the planningsystem, a team member receives the invitation from the Team Lead vendorand can review the invitation. The team member can accept an invitationand join the team. The team member is joined to the team. The Team Leadvendor can create shared timeline(s) for the team. The team member isprovided permission to the shared team timeline. Preferably the teammember cannot access the team timeline until permission is granted bythe Team Lead vendor to share the team timeline with the team member.The team member may now add events/offers to the shared timeline. TheTeam Lead vendor may also add events/offers to the shared timeline. TheTeam Lead vendor can request to publish the shared timeline utilizingthe planning system. The Team Lead vendor audits and makes the teamtimeline available to users. Utilizing the planning system, the timelineuser has access to the list of available vendors. The vendors caninclude single vendors and/or team vendors. Once the Team Lead vendorhas published the team timeline, it will be in the list of availablevendors on the timeline user interface. If the timeline user subscribesto a vendor timeline, the vendor timeline will be brought into thetimeline user's system. The vendor can be a single vendor and/or a teamvendor.

The actions shown in FIG. 9O include:

Team-Lead vendor;

Create team;

Request vendor list;

List of vendors;

Team-Lead vendor;

Select desired vendors;

The planning system<->Team-Lead vendor;

send invitation to other vendors;

The planning system<->Team-Member vendor;

Receive invitation from Team-Lead;

Team-Member vendor;

Review invitation;

The planning system<->Team-Member vendor;

Accept & join team;

The planning system<->Team-Lead vendor;

New vendor joined team;

Create shared timeline(s) for team;

The planning system<->Team-Member vendor;

Accept & join team;

Receive permission to the shared timeline;

The planning system<->Team-Lead vendor;

Create shared timeline(s) for team;

Add events/offers to the shared timeline;

The planning system<->Team-Member vendor;

Add events/offers to the shared timeline;

The planning system<->Team-Lead vendor;

Request to publish shared timeline;

The planning system;

Audit and make it available to users;

The planning system<->Timeline User;

Provide the vendor (Single-Vendor or Team-Vendor) in the list ofavailable vendors; and

Subscribe to a vendor (Single-Vendor or Team-Vendor) and bring thevendor timeline to his/her life.

FIG. 9P is a diagram that shows how the planning system can autopopulate Timelines for none-user Vendor as long as these vendors offeremail subscriptions. In another word the auto populate algorithm canretrieve all coupons/offers/events/deals by external vendor that don'thave Vendor User account in the planning system. This auto populatealgorithm organizes the vendors Ads/coupons/offers/events in form ofTimelines and make it available for Timeline Users to subscribe to. Thisplanning system offers a uniform user interface that is yet moreorganized than receiving annoying subscription emails from differentvendor that clutter the email box. In this diagram the planning systemuses an “Auto populate” algorithm. In order to auto populate a “VendorTimeline”, system admin manually subscribes to all popular vendors whooffer email subscription using the planning system email account(s). Theplanning system “Auto populate” algorithm reads the received email fromthese vendors and insert an event for each email into the right “VendorTimeline”. Later on, the Timeline User subscribes to an auto populateVendor Timeline and stores it in a “Sub-Timeline”. Even though the usergets all the annoying deals/offer/events/coupons, but since they aresitting in their own Sub-Timeline, they won't bother the user until userabsolutely need them for certain purchases. Plus anytime user doesn'twant a “Vendor Timeline”, the process of un-subscription is through auniform user interface and simple.

If a vendor like “MACYS” has different categories of subscription, suchas “MACYS Furniture”, “MACYS Kitchen”, etc., the planning system coulduse the same “Auto populate algorithm” but use different Admin emailaccount. The combination of vendor name and “system-admin-email” will bethe determining factor for the algorithm to decide which “VendorTimeline” an event belongs to and needs to be created in. For examplefor “MACYS” we could have multiple “Vendor Timeline” in the planningsystem such as “MACYS Furniture”, “MACYS Kitchen”. The emails associatedwith each category will land as an event in “Vendor Timeline”, “MACYSFurniture” or “MACYS Kitchen” accordingly. FIG. 9P is a blow out ofVendor User action 8097

Block 8097 shows User Vendor: Auto-populate vendor timelines actions.

FIG. 9Q is a sequence diagram that shows the planning system can be usedas centralized one stop shot for on demand subscribing and unsubscribingto/from different Vendors. FIG. 9Q is a blow out of Vendor User action8062.

Block 8062 shows User Vendor: central Ads subscription/unsubscribingactions. The “Timeline User”, “The planning system” and “8062: Externalvendor” are each represented by a column with a broken/dashed lineextending along the column. The actions between each of the four (4) isshown by lines with directional arrow heads shows input(s), output(s)and action(s) to/from/between each of the four (4) columns. Throughutilizing the planning system, the External vendor can subscribe tovendor advertising, mailing list(s). The External vendor can create avendor timeline utilizing the planning system and make it publiclyaccessible through the planning system to users. The timeline userthrough the planning system receives a list of External vendortimelines. The timeline user can subscribe to one or more vendortimeline(s). Utilizing the planning system, the External vendor canreceive advertising e-mails, process ads and put them in relatedtimelines for the vendor, and update subscribers' timelines. Thetimeline user through the planning system can receive the categorizedads in desired timelines. The timeline user can utilize the planningsystem to unsubscribed from undesired vendors or out-of-season vendors.Utilizing the planning system, the timeline user will stop receivingupdates because the planning system will stop updating the user timelinewith new ads.

The actions shown in FIG. 9Q include:

The planning system<->External vendor;

subscribe to vendor advertising mailing list;

The planning system;

Create vendor timeline in the planning system and make it public;

The planning system<->Timeline User;

Receive list of external vendor timelines;

Subscribe to vendor timeline;

The planning system<->External vendor;

Receive Advertising Emails;

The planning system;

Process Ads and put them in related timeline for vendor;

Update subscribers' “Sub_Timeline”;

The planning system<->Timeline User;

Receive categorized Ads in desired timelines;

Ask the planning system to unsubscribe from undesired vendors or out ofseason vendors;

The planning system; and

The planning system stop updating user timeline by new Ads.

FIGS. 10AA-10R depict exemplary interfaces used for a teamingfunctionality, including, for example, creating a team vendor andassociated features and functionalities.

The use of the term “vendor” includes both a “Single vendor” and“Team-lead vendor,” as discussed in more detail herein. Generally, asingle vendor may include a vendor utilizing systems and methods for asingle entity. A vendor, however, may also include teams of vendors.Those teams of vendors are led by one vendor, referred to as a team-leadvendor, as discussed in more detail herein. The following descriptionrelates to an exemplary implementation of a team-lead vendor system andmethod. Again, a vendor may be a type that is compensated and/or paid ornot compensated and/or paid.

Referring to FIG. 10AA, a vendor home screen is shown. The vendor home,generally, may include a profile 4004 for the vendor, a timeline userlink 4005 to the vendor's own timeline user interface and a useridentification 4000, which can be a userid, and can be represented by ane-mail address, for example. The user may be a vendor and/or a timelineuser. As shown, the vendor home may include a vendor timeline option4006 and a teaming option 4008.

The vendor user is “Travel Point Inc” and has a user identified at 4000of TravelPointInc@gmai.com. This vendor user may want to create a “teamvendor” or team-lead vendor. The team can be identified by the teamvendor and may be called “Travel Lead Team,” for example, as discussedin more detail with reference to FIG. 10B and hereafter.

The vendor, however, also may create its own vendor timelines 4006. Asshown in FIG. 10AA, the vendor timeline(s) are shown generally at 4007.The vendor can create entries, events and/or group of events on its ownregular timeline, e.g., “Travel Point Inc” timeline 4002. Accessingthrough Travel Point Inc 4007, the vendor can display its timeline asshown under the Travel Point Inc open header 4001 to display itstimeline 4002. For example, displayed Travel Point Inc timeline 4002,included two entries, 4003A and 4003B. As shown the Travel Point Inctimeline 4002 includes “$500 off round trip to Spain from WashingtonD.C.” 4003A and “Buy one domestic round trip ticket, get second onefree” at 4003B.

The following will provide an exemplary method of utilizing this vendorfunctionality. In screen 4009, a “Vendor user” with useridTravelPointInc@gmail.com, as user identification 4000, has signed in.Clicking on the “Vendor Timeline” 4006 on the left menu allows all ofthe Vendor's timeline(s) of a “Vendor user” to be displayed showngenerally at 4007. The vendor user “Travel Point Inc.” has only onetimeline referenced at 4002 and its name is “Travel Point Inc.” 4001.

This “Vendor User” has two events in its timeline that are offering 50%coupon 4003B and 30% coupon 4003A on certain dates/time. This “VendorUser” at this point is a “Single vendor”. If “Vendor User” clicks on“Add New” button labeled 4007B, a new “Vendor Timeline” can be created.

If “Vendor user” clicks on profile link 4004, “Vendor user” could changevendor's name, title, logo and vendor service scope, type, etc. If“Vendor user” Clicks on “TimeLineUser” link 4005, “Vendor user” couldswitch to its own “Timeline user” account. (Note—Every “Vendor user” hasa “Timeline User” account.)

If “Vendor User” clicks on Teaming left menu 4008, the vendor user canview the teams for which the vendor user serves as the “Team-leadVendor” and teams the vendor user is a “Team Member” of, as shown, forexample as “My Own Teams” in FIG. 10A.

Referring to FIG. 10A, a vendor home display is shown with reference toteaming with other vendors that may share common interests and/or users,such as car rental, hotel and department store for vendor “Travel PointInc” (userid TravelPointInc@gmail.com). As part of the vendor home, thevendor can have access to the tools to create teams, as shown, atteaming 4014 with Start a Team 4010 and Join a Team 4011functionalities. This teaming can be referred to as happening on the flyand there is no need to create a dedicated website.

As shown in an exemplary display, in screen 4012, in order to create a“Team Timeline”, “Vendor User” with userid TravelPointInc@gmail.com asthe user identification 4000, the vendor clicks on left menu “Teaming”4014 and clicks on “Start a Team” 4010. If a vendor user also wants tobe a member of a team “Vendor user” could click on button “Join a team”4011 and join a team as member.

Referring to FIG. 10B, the vendor home screen 4021 show the user displayafter the vendor user has selected “Start a Team” 4010, a teaminformation entry screen 4025 can display and allow for naming of theteam, for example, “Travel Lead Team”, among other things.

As shown, the “Vendor User” with userid “TravelPointInc@gmail.com as theuser identification 4000 may name the team “Travel Lead Team” in thetitle field 4026. “Vendor User” may enter the description 4022 of theteam vendor's mission, purpose and/or goals and may choose a logo 4023.After “Vendor User” is done entering “Team Vendor” information, userclicks on save button 4024 (or cancel to abort) and “Travel Lead Team”can be created in the system and can be displayed under the list oftimelines belonging to “Vendor User”, “Travel Point Inc” as discussed inmore detail and shown in FIG. 10D at 4042.

Referring to FIG. 10C, the vendor may invite vendors to join the vendorteam, such as Airline-Star. (The Travel Lead Team invite option isdisplayed at 4047 in FIG. 10D and is discussed with reference to thatfigure.) Continuing to refer to FIG. 10C, however, as displayed inscreen 4036, the “invite vendors to join your team” display is shownwith a search for vendor field and pre-populated vendors. The “VendorUser” with userid “TravelPointInc@gmail.com” as the user identification4000 serving as a team lead vendor, may invite other “Vendor Users”,such as “Airline-Star” 4032 to join the team the vendor created calledTravel Team Lead, for example. In pop-up screen 4031 the team leadvendor user can scroll up and down to choose the “Vendor User” the teamlead vendor user would like to be in his team as member through aselection option 4034. In the field called “Invitation Text” 4033, theteam lead vendor user enters the invitation text at 4033 so that“Airline-Star,” for example, as a prospective team member receives theinvitation and reads the invitation and can accept or reject the offer.Finally “Vendor user”, “Travel Point Inc.”, serving as team lead vendor,clicks on “Invite selected” button 4034. If “Vendor User”, clicks onCancel button 4035, he cancels out of this page and doesn't choose anymember for his team at this time.

Referring to FIG. 10D, an invited vendor is displayed as part of theTravel Lead Team with designated status, such as invited, accepted, orrejected. As shown, the invited vendor, Airline-Start, may be shown asinvited but not accepted. A team lead vendor may invite multiple vendorsto join the team, e.g. a hotel, a travel company, or a department store.For example, a vendor may click on an “invite” hyperlink next to “TravelLead Team” and choose another vendor such as a “m-department store” (notshown.) The vendors business may have nothing to do with travel, but canbe used along with hotel and car rental as a coupon to get a gift duringthe travel.

Screen 4044 of FIG. 10D shows “Vendor User” with userid“TravelPointInc@gmail.com” as the user identification 4000 havingclicked on left menu “My Own Team” 4046 and expands it as illustrated.“Vendor User”, “Travel Point Inc.”, will see a list of the team(s) thatthe team lead vendor is the team-lead of As shown, under My Own Teams4046, a team with name of “Travel Lead Team” is created and has one“Vendor user” member Airline-Start 4040. As shown in the invited status.Next to team “Travel Lead Team” 4042 there are three (3) hyperlinks“Invite” 4047, “Edit” 4048 and “Delete” 4049. If the team leadvendor/vendor use clicks on “Invite” 4047, team lead vendor user can“Invite” more “Vendor Users” (e.g., as shown in FIG. 10C) as member(s)to the team lead vendor team. If the team lead vendor user clicks on“Edit” 4048, it could change detail about the “Team vendor” such astitle, logo, etc. If user clicks on “Delete” 4049 it could delete the“Team timeline”.

Next to Airline-Start, there are two hyperlinks, “Invited” 4041 which isdisabled at the moment and “Cancel” 4043 that is clickable. Since“Vendor User”, “Travel Point Inc.” already invited “Airline-Start”, itshows “Invited” 4041. If the team lead vendor decides to cancel theinvitation, it can click on the “Cancel” 4043 hyperlink and revoke theinvitation.

FIG. 10DD shows screen 4050, for “Vendor User” with userid“TravelPointInc@gmail.com” as the user identification 4000. The teamlead vendor can repeats all the previous discussed steps and invite more“Vendor user(s)” to the “Vendor Timeline”, “Travel Lead Team” 4055. Theteam lead vendor has chosen three (3) more “Vendor users” as teammembers to join the Travel Lead Team. The team lead vendor has invited“Car-Rental-Peace” 4052, “Hotel-Fun” 4053 and “m-department store2”4054.

As can be seen the nature of “m-department store” 4054 ostensibly hasnothing to do with airfare, car rental and hotel business. However thisis to demonstrate that totally disjoined businesses could team updynamically, without a need to create a static website such asTRAVELOCITY to accommodate their short term or long term teamingrequirement. Each invited Vendor User can conduct business and offerevent/coupons/advise to all the “Timeline User(s)” that subscribe totheir “Team-lead Vendor”. The “Team timeline” creates a wrapper aroundthe entire team members that when “Timeline user” tries to subscribe toa “Team vendor” it acts like “Single vendor” timeline and it will beseamless to “Timeline user.” Preferably, the team can be displayed to atimeline user as if it were a single vendor, when, indeed, it is acollection of one or more vendors represented as one vendor through theteam lead vendor.

Referring to FIG. 10E, a vendor home is shown, however, this is thevendor home of “car-rental-peace@gmail.com” as the user identification4060. The vendor user has a Teaming option 4065, which has not entriesin this display. If user “car-rental-peace@gmail.com” logs in and clickson “My Other Collaborations”, 4062 that vendor user can see the display“Travel Point Inc.” 4063 as the team lead vendor and its team “TravelLead team” 4068. The vendor user recipient of the invitation has achoice to “Accept” 4066 or “Reject” 4067 the invitation. The user may beasked to confirm the selection of accepting or rejection via a popupdialogue box.

Referring to FIG. 10F, “Vendor user”, “car-rental-peace” screen display4072 has accepted 4075 (not rejected 4077) the invitation from“Team-lead vendor”, “Travel Point Inc.” 4076. The “Travel Lead Team(invited) Accept | Reject” changes to “Travel Lead Team (joined) Leave”4070 (joined), 4071 (leave). The hyperlink “Joined” 4070 is not activebecause “Vendor User” has already joined the team and the hyperlink“Leave” 4071 is clickable because the vendor user can leave the teamanytime. As it is shown “Vendor user” “car-rental-peace@gmail.com” asthe user identification 4060 hasn't accepted the invitation from another“Team-lead Vendor” “TravelDeals” 4074 as the status still says “Accept”4075, and “Reject” 4077. Notice that “TravelDeals” may be thecompetition for “Travel Point Inc.” 4076 or “Single Vendor”,“car-rental-peace” can be the team member of two different “Team-leadvendor” with different terms and conditions.

Referring to FIG. 10G, at this point “Vendor User”, “Travel Point Inc.”4080, created a “Vendor team” called “Travel Lead Team”. In screen 4081“Vendor User”, “Travel Point Inc.” 4080 can create a “Vendor timeline”based on a “Team” that was created earlier called “Travel Lead Team”. Todo this, the “Vendor User” clicks on the left menu “Vendor Timeline”4082 and expands it, then clicks on “Add New” button 4083 in order tocreate a “Team Timeline”. In pop-up screen 4084 “Vendor user” enters the“Team timeline” “Title” 4085, “From” date/time, “To” date/time, “Color”,“Category” of “Team timeline”, “Sub Category” of “Team timeline”, andclicks on the check box “Is Team Timeline?” 4087 and chooses the “TravelLead Team” 4089 from the dropdown. This dropdown shows the list of“Teams” created before. In this drop down “Vendor User” could alsocreate a new “Team” by clicking on “+Create a team” 4089 and the samedialog as FIG. 10B will pop up and will allow “Vendor user” to create anew “Team” in order to associate it to a “Team-lead timeline”. Finally“Vendor user” clicks on “Save” button 4087.

Referring to FIG. 10H, in screen 4093, if “Vendor User”, “Travel PointInc.” 4092 clicks on left menu, “Vendor Timeline” 4095 and expands it, alist of “Vendor User's” timeline can be displayed. The new “Teamtimeline”, “Travel Lead Team” 4091 is also added next to “Vendor user”regular “Vendor Timeline”, “Travel Point Inc.” 4094, however “Teamtimeline” has a prefix of (My Team) 4096.

Referring to FIG. 10I, user “TravelPointInc@gmail.com” can create anevent in “Team Timeline.” As displayed in screen 4115, “Vendor user”,“Travel Point Inc.”, 4000, can start creating “Vendor events” in “TeamTimeline”. Whether “Vendor User” creates events in “Team Timeline” orregular “Single Vendor Timeline”, creation of events is the sameprocess. In screen 4115, “Vendor User” clicks on button “Event” 4114,screen 4101 pops up. “Vendor User” enters “Title” of the event 4102,“Description” of the event 4103, “From” date/time of the event 4104,“To” date/time of the event 4105, the choice of the “Color” for “VendorUser” of the event 4106, “Type” of the event from the dropdown 4107, “Isit published” checkbox 4108 in order to force publishing the event incase the checkbox is checked, “Media” 4111 that a file associated to theevent could be browsed by clicking on “Choose File” and uploaded to theevent. The Media could be pictures, logo, coupons, etc. “Vendor User”could remove the Media by clicking on “Remove” button 4110. The “VendorUser”, “Travel Point Inc.” could decide if this event needs to be pop-upads and if so he will click the checkbox “Create Advertisement for theevent” and he needs to provide an “Advertisement” 4116 by choosing afile. This file can be any type of media (image/video/etc.). This mediawill be displayed as pop-up ads next to any “Timeline User” screen thathas subscribed to “Travel Point Inc.” Finally “Vendor User”, “TravelPoint Inc.” can click on the “Save” button 4112 and save the event orcould click on “Cancel” button 4113 and cancel the “Team TimelineEvent”.

Referring to FIG. 10II, in screen 4124, “Vendor User”, “Travel PointInc.”, 4120, can view its newly created “Team Timeline Event” 4123, in“Team Timeline”, “Travel Lead Team”, 4121 and its “Team-lead timeline”4122.

Referring to FIG. 10J, in screen 4135, if “Vendor user,”car-rental-peace@gmail.com as the user identification 4060 logs into thesystem and refreshes its screen and displays its list of “VendorTimeline”, the vendor user will find the “Team Timeline”, “Travel LeadTeam”, 4133 and the newly created event “Get 30% discount . . . ” 4131displayed in the timeline. This event was created by “Team-lead vendor”,“Travel Point Inc.” Needless to say that “Car-Rental-Peace” is also a“Single Vendor” with a “Single Vendor Timeline” that is called“Car-Rental-Peace” 4136, “Car-Rental-Peace” is also “Team Member Vendor”4133 to “Travel Lead Team”. The hyperlink “Joined Team” 4134 is dimmedand shows “Vendor User”, “Car-Rental-peace” is part of a “Vendor team”,“Travel Lead Team”.

Referring to FIG. 10JJ, in screen 4145, “Vendor user”,“Car-Rental-Peace” 4140 could create “Vendor Events” in “Team Timeline”,“Travel Lead Team” 4144 by clicking on “Event” button, 4142. The eventcreation dialog 4143 will pop-up, and “Vendor User”, “Car-Rental-Peace”could create the event as explained in dialog 4101 in FIG. 10I. Screen4145 shows that “Team-Member Vendor” can create events in the sametimeline as “Team-Lead Vendor”. Event creation detail is explained inFIG. 10I.

Referring to FIG. 10K, a display shows a timeline in which multiple teammembers have added events, by way of the team lead vendor. Usertravelpointinc@gmail.com who started the team “Travel lead Team” maypublish the timeline that is created by his team members. The team leadvendor can delete and remove events offered by its team members andeventually publish them on the team timeline. In screen 4146, it isshows the “Team Timeline” populated with events added by team-membervendors on the team and published 4162 by the “Travel Lead Team.” Theevent “Get 30% discount on airline . . . ” 4164 was created by“Airline-Start”, the event “50% on any size rental car” 4165 was createdby “Car-Rental-Peace”, the event “30% 2 nights hotel” 4163 was createdby “Hotel-fun”, the event “50% wedding gift discount” 4167 was createdby “m-department store 2”. However, only “Team-lead Vendor”, “TravelPoint Inc.” 4160, can delete other “Team-member vendor” events. Finallyafter “Team-lead Vendor”, “Travel Point Inc.” is satisfied with the“Team timeline” as a “Team-lead Vendor” 4166 can publish 4162 the “TeamTimeline.” After publishing, when a “Timeline User” logs in to thesystem, the timeline user can see this new “Vendor” when they click on“Find a Vendor”. It is important to mention that for “Timeline User”,“Single Vendor” or “Team Vendor” is the same and subscribing to both canbe done in same way as described in FIG. 10L, subscribing to a “TeamVendor” or FIG. 11C, subscribing to a “Single Vendor”

Now if any consumer user such as Maryjones@gmail.com logs in, thattimeline user/consumer will see displayed “Travel Lead Team” as atimeline vendor that the timeline user could subscribe to it. Notablythe timeline user could be a consumer/timeline user and/or a singlevendor accessing through the vendor's timeline user interface. At thispoint it is invisible to the Mary Jones that four (4) companies(vendors) collaborated. The timeline user sees only the team lead vendorinterface.

Referring to FIG. 10L, a timeline user interface is shown. If any“Timeline User” logs in, such as Maryjones@gmail.com as useridentification 4180, that timeline user can Find a Vendor and see, forexample, “Travel Lead Team” as a timeline vendor that the timeline usercan subscribe to and/or unsubscribe to. At this point it is invisible tothe Mary Jones that vendor “Travel Lead Team” is a collaboration, forexample, a collaboration of four (4) companies. In particular, in screen4183, “Timeline User”, Maryjones@gmail.com as user identification 4180logged in. She clicks on left menu “Find a Vendor” 4181 and expands it.“Mary Jones” is looking for a “Vendor” to handle her Travel matters. Shefinds “Travel Point Inc.” 4181 as an available Vendor in list of thesystem vendors. “Mary Jones” clicks on hyperlink “Subscribe”4182 andafter steps in FIG. 10M-P “Travel Point Inc.” will appear in thetimeline user's list of “My vendors.” By unsubscribing it will beremoved from My Vendors and appear in Find a Vendor.

Referring to FIG. 10M, the timeline user display is shown. In screen4191, as a continuation from FIG. 10L, the “Timeline User”,Maryjones@gmail.com as user identification 4180 was trying to subscribeto “Travel Point Inc.” 4195. A popup screen “Subscribe to Vendor'stimeline” 4194 is displayed. “Mary Jones” has to choose an option for“Target Sub-Timeline”4192 by either Choose an existing Sub-Timeline orcreate a new Sub-Timeline by clicking on “+New Sub-Timeline”. She clickson “+New Sub Timeline” 4193 and a new dialog pops up that allows her tocreate a new “Sub-Timeline” as displayed in FIG. 10N. Once the“Sub-Timeline” is created FIG. 10O explains the future steps.

Referring to FIG. 10N, as continuation from FIG. 10M, “Timeline User”,Maryjones@gmail.com as user identification 4180 was trying to Create a“Sub-Timeline” in screen 4205. In pop-up screen “Sub-Timeline” 4201,“Mary Jones” enters “My Travel Point Inc.” for “Sub-Timeline” title 4202and enter “From” date 4203, “To” date 4206 for duration of the“Sub-Timeline” and chooses the “Sub-Timeline” color 4207. Finally thetimeline user clicks on “Save” button 4204. A “Sub-Timeline” with title“My Travel Point Inc.” gets created.

Referring to FIG. 10O, as continuation from FIG. 10N, “Timeline User”,Maryjones@gmail.com as user identification 4180 was trying to subscribeto a vendor's timeline. In screen 4211, “Mary Jones” clicks the checkbox“Auto update future Vendor events” 4216 in order to receive the futurevendor's event as an auto-feed in her “Sub-Timeline”. She chooses “MyTravel Point Inc.” as the “Target Sub-Timeline” 4212 and she enters“From” date 4213, “To” date 4216 in order to provide date range forsubscribing to events in “Vendor Timeline”, “Travel Point Inc.” andbrings them as feed to “Sub-Timeline” named “My Travel Point Inc.” 4212.This means “Mary Jones” only subscribes to “Vendor Events” belonging to“Travel Point Inc.” only within these date ranges provided. Finally“Mary Jones” clicks on “Subscribe” button 4215 and “Mary Jones” getssubscribed to vendor “Travel Point Inc.”

Referring to FIG. 10P, as continuation from FIG. 10O, after “TimelineUser”, Maryjones@gmail.com as user identification 4180 is subscribed to“Travel Point Inc.”, if she clicks on left menu “My Vendors” and see“Travel Point Inc.” 4221 is listed as her subscribed vendors. Also the“Sub-Timeline”, “My Travel Point Inc.” 4222 is created and displayed ascollapsed sub-timeline. As it is displayed, all events in “Travel PointInc.” are shown in “Main Timeline” as well, event 4224 is equal to event4223, and event 4226 is equal to event 4225. “Mary Jones” can click onbutton “X” 4227 above “Sub-Timeline”, “My Travel Point Inc.” and hidethis “Sub-Timeline”. “Mary Jones” could expand a “Sub-Timeline” byclicking on button 4228. On right hand side of the screen a pop-up ads4229 is blinking. As it is shown it belongs to “Anderson School” 4230that is listed under “My vendors”. Referring to FIG. 10Q the pop-up adschanges to “N-Clothing store” 4237, that is one of the vendors listedunder “My vendors” section of FIG. 10P as “N-Land Clothing” 4231.

Referring to FIG. 10Q, “Timeline User”, Maryjones@gmail.com as useridentification 4180, can click on left menu “Sub-Timeline”, 4236 and seethe list of her “Sub-Timelines”. “Mary Jones” could hide “Sub-Timeline”,“My Travel Point Inc.” as it is explained in FIG. 10P. “Mary Jones”could unhide a “Sub-Timeline”, “My Travel Point Inc.” by double clickingon the “My Travel Point Inc.” 4236 listed under left menu. If younotice, the pop-up ads changes from “Anderson School” 4229 in FIG. 10Pto “N-Clothing store” 4237 in FIG. 10Q. “N-Clothing Store ads” belong toone of the vendors listed under “My vendors” section of FIG. 10P as“N-Land Clothing” 4231.

Referring to FIG. 10R, “Timeline User”, Maryjones@gmail.com as useridentification 4180, can expand her “Sub-Timeline”, “My Travel PointInc.” by clicking on button 4242. As it is shown the same events in“Sub-timeline”, “My Travel Point Inc.” 4241 are displayed in“Main-Timeline” 4243.

The systems and methods described herein may work with many types ofvendor and consumer relationships, such as teacher and parents, doctorsand patients, department stores and shoppers, etc.

FIGS. 11A-11R depict exemplary interfaces using the planning system inthe teacher and parent relationship. In this implementation, vendor maybe a teacher and/or school. This school may have many timelines fordifferent classes. A teacher may have permission to create events onsome timelines and other timelines could be read only. For example, theteacher can create events in her vendor (teacher) timelines. The teachermay attach test material and/or pictures to events as well, Thefollowing provides a more detailed discussion of this teacher-parentimplementation of the systems and methods.

Referring to FIG. 11A The “User Vendor”, andersonschool@gmail.com asuser identification 7200 is the admin for “Anderson School”. He loggedin to his account in “Anderson school” site. At this point the schoolhas three (3) “Vendor Timeline”, for example, “5th Gr-Math-Mrs Jones”7205, “5th Gr-Social Study-Mrs Bunch” 7206, “1st Gr-Math-Science-MrStar” 7207. Each of the teachers, Mrs. Jones, Mrs. Bunch and Mr. Starhas their own account and could log in and change the timeline they haveaccess to. One teacher could also manage one or more timeline. Forexample a violin teacher may teach from 1st to 6th grade students andhave one timeline per class, a total of 6 timelines.

By clicking on “Add New” button under the “Vendor Timeline”, the vendoruser can add a new “Vendor Timeline”. Currently the “Vendor timeline”that this “User Vendor” is looking at is “5th Gr-Math-Mrs-Jones” 7214.He has three events scheduled in them. One of the events, shown at event7218, is directed to a “5th grade Math Test no 22” that is scheduled on“Monday May 15, 2013 from 10:00 AM to 10:30 AM” and its landing on thetimeline is at point 7215. The order of the events in “Vendor Timeline”is from oldest events at the bottom and the most recent events on top.The landing point 7216 is lower than 7215 which means event 7215 is themost recent one. In event 7218 there is an attachment 7219 that is amedia attached by the teacher, Mrs. Jones. This attachment is the samplemath test that teacher attached for her parent/students to download. If“Vendor User” wants to create a new event, he clicks on button “Event”7208. If “Vendor User” clicks on button “Year” 7209 up/down arrow theyear goes up/down and timeline scrolls up/down. If “Vendor User” clickson button “Month” 7211 up/down arrow the month goes up/down and timelinescrolls up/down for the month. If “Vendor User” clicks on button “Day”7212 up/down arrow the day goes up/down and timeline scrolls up/down.

Every “Vendor User” has a “Timeline User” account. If “Vendor User”clicks on hyperlink “TimelineUser”, 7213, “Vendor User” could switch tothe “Timeline User” side. The vendor user has its own user timeline aswell. Through this hyperlink button 7213 the user could switch betweenits' “User Vendor” home and its' “Timeline User” home.

Events on each timeline could be filtered if “User Vendor” clicks on“Filter by keyword” 7201, and enter a keyword. As a result all eventsthat have this keyword will be shown. Referring to FIG. 11P, thatdisplay shows the same functionality on the “Timeline User” side.

At the time an event being created, “Vendor User” decides on the eventcolor. Color could have a special meaning for the “Vendor User”. Everyevent on each timeline could be filtered if “User Vendor” clicks on“Filter by color” 7202, and choose on a color. As a result all theevents that have the same color will be shown. Refer to FIG. 11Q, thatdisplay shows the same functionality on the “Timeline User” side.

At the time an event is getting created, “Vendor User” decides on the“Event Type”. Every event on each timeline could be filtered if “UserVendor” clicks on “Filter by Event Type” 7203, and choose a type orenter a type. As a result all the events that have the same type will beshown. Referring to FIG. 11R, that display shows the same functionalityon the “Timeline User” side.

If “Vendor User” clicks on “Navigate to Date” 7204, “Vendor User” couldchoose a day in the calendar to jump to those dates in the timeline, orcould click on the hyperlink year or hyperlink month to scroll thetimeline to those dates.

There are three (3) hyperlinks under each event named “Edit”, “Delete”and “Offers” (not shown). By clicking on “Event” hyperlink “Vendor User”could edit the event. By clicking on “Delete” hyperlink “Vendor User”could delete the event. By clicking on “Offers” hyperlink, “Vendor User”could add more Sales offers/coupons for each event. Each event could beassociated to more than one offer.

Referring to FIG. 11B “User Vendor”, andersonschool@gmail.com as useridentification 7200, is on “Vendor Home” side 7260 and viewing one ofher “User Timeline”, “5th Gr-Math-Mrs-Jones” displayed at 7258 and 7257.She is trying to edit one of the events “5th grade math Test no 22” 7261the she created before. “Vendor User” clicks on “Edit” hyperlink underthe event and the “Edit Event” dialog box pops up. User could edit event“Title” 7242, event “Description” 7243. User could edit the startdate/time and end date/time of the event in field “From” 7244 and “To”7245. “Vendor User” could choose a color for each event and in thisscreen the color 7246 could be changed, by clicking on the color square,a color pallet will be displayed a different color can be chosen. Event“Type” 7247 could also be changed. In this drop down either an existingevent “Type” gets chosen or a new event “Type” can be created by the“Vendor User” on the fly. The vendor user could also decide if thisevent needs to be published or not by checking the check box next to “Isit published?” 7248. Events on the “Vendor User” timeline will bevisible to “Timeline User” timeline if and only if they get published bythe “User Vendor”. In field “Media” 7251 by clicking on “Browse” button7250, one or many media files such as pictures, videos, word doc, excel,etc. could be uploaded. If checkbox “Create Advertisement for theevent?” 7252 is checked, “User Vendor” will upload media files for popupads. For doing so “User Vendor” choose an “Advertisement Image” 7256 byclicking on “Choose File” 7255 and upload a media file. Finally userclick on “Save” button 7254 and all changes to the event made by the“Vendor User” gets updated. If “User Vendor” clicks on “Cancel” button7253, all her changes won't be saved.

If user clicks on “Event” button 7259, the “Add Event” dialog box willbe displayed that has all the above fields as described in previousparagraph and by clicking “Save” a brand new event gets created.

Referring to FIG. 11BB “User Vendor”, andersonschool@gmail.com as useridentification 7200, is on “Vendor Home” side 7272. This figure showsyet another “Vendor Timeline”, “1st Gr-Math-Science-Mr Star”, 7271 thatsits on a vertical timeline 7273. One of its events is “1st grade end ofschool year party” 7274. This timeline is created by Mr. Star, 1st gradeteacher. He created all events related to his classroom activities withmedia attached to them.

Referring to FIG. 11C “Timeline User”, Maryjones@gmail.com as useridentification 4180, is on “Timeline User Home” side. She is a parentand has two children in first and second grade attending “AndersonSchool”. She wants to subscribe to teacher's timeline for both 1st gradeand 5th grade. Mary Jones could login to the planning system and manageher life in one stop shop for her job related events, children's sport,children school, doctors, shopping, coupons etc. Last year Mary had touse a separate stand-alone system, such as “BLACKBOARD.com”, to manageone of her son's school activities who was going to public school. Forher second son's school activities she had to use a private schoolwebsite. This year Anderson school teachers are using the planningsystem described herein and Mary Jones can manage most of her lifeevents using the same User Interface.

FIG. 11C shows the displayed user timelines. “Timeline User” has one“Main Timeline” and a couple of “Sub Timeline” parallel to each other.The events can be separated by dashed lines 7286, 7288 that represent aday. All events within one day are between 2 dashed lines or they couldgo over a dashed line if they take more than a day. In the same fashionall events can be displayed relative to hours and each dashed line willrepresent an hour of the day.

In FIG. 11C “Mary Jones” has already created a “Sub Timeline” called“Daniel Son #1” 7285. She clicks on left menu “Find a Vendor” 7281, shecan scroll up/down the list of vendors or she enters a keyword andclicks on the “Find” button. She finds “Vendor Timeline”, “AndersonSchool” 7282 and she clicks on it. Under “Anderson School” 7282, three(3) “Vendor Timeline” are displayed. She hovers over “5th Gr-Math-MrsJones” and clicks on “Subscribe” button 7283 and the pop-up displayed inFIG. 11D will be shown.

In FIG. 11C if “Mary Jones” before subscribing to “Vendor Timeline”,“1st Gr-Math-Science-Mr Star” clicks on “Review” button 7284 the pop-upFIG. 11CC will be displayed that allows “Mary Jones” to read other“Timeline Users” review for “Vendor Timeline” before subscribing to itand/or Mary Jones could provide review for this “Vendor Timeline”.

Referring to FIG. 11CC as continuation of FIG. 11C, “Mary Jones” wastrying to review a “Timeline Vendor” before subscribing to it. In thisfigure “Vendor Rating” and number of voters 7292 are displayed, thatmeans “Mary Jones” could get some confidence before subscribing to this“Vendor User”. Also all events belong to “Vendor Timeline” “1stGr-Math-Science-Mr Star” 7291 are displayed. Mary Jones could provideher review in field “Write down your comment about this Vendor:” 7294.She can provide a rate by clicking on the slide button 7295 and click onbutton “Send Rate & Comment” 7296. The “Vendor User” icon 7290 is shownon top right corner. By clicking on button “Return” 7297 all reviews getsaved.

Referring to FIG. 11D as continuation of FIG. 11C, Mary Jones is tryingto subscribe to “5th Gr-Math-Mrs Jones”, the pop-up “Subscribe toVendor's timeline” 7302 will be displayed. Mary Jones can unclick on“Auto update future Vendor events” 7303 to subscribe to events in thepast only without any feed for future. For “Target Sub-Timeline” 7304,she could also create a new “Sub Timeline” or she could choose anexisting “Sub Timeline” that she created before. In this example she haschosen “Daniel son #1”. She could optionally enter duration of time shewants to subscribe to a timeline by entering date/time in “From” 7305and “To” 7306 fields. Finally “Timeline User”, Mary Jones, clicks on“Subscribe” button 7308 and the subscription to a “Vendor User” iscompleted. Once subscribed, it means from now on Mary Jones, will getautomatic feeds of all events posted by “5th Gr-Math-Mrs Jones”, orinstead of subscribing she has the option to cancel 7307.

Referring to FIG. 11E, “Timeline User”, Maryjones@gmail.com as useridentification 4180, is on “Timeline User Home” side. This screen showsthat after Mary Jones subscribed to “Vendor Timeline”, “5th Gr-Math-Mrs.Jones”, the event “5th grade math Test no 22” is displayed in both “MainTimeline” at 7313 and “Sub Timeline”, “Daniel 1st Son” at 7315 at“Daniel 1^(st) Son” timeline display tab as shown by bar 7312. Bar 7312can be any representative symbol, bar and/or color and is preferablyvisually correlated with the entry on the main timeline.

Mary Jones also clicked on left menu “Sub Timelines” 7314 and expandedit. The “Sub Timeline”, “Daniel son #1”, 7315 is displayed. Also“Sub-Timeline”, “My version of FACEBOOK” 7316 is displayed. Withavailable API shared by FACEBOOK, user FACEBOOK Single “User Timeline”could be fed into the planning system as a “Sub-Timeline”. By Clickingon “Add New” button new “Sub-Timeline” could be added.

Event “Mom Birthday Party” 7321 is created directly by Mary Jones andsome pictures are attached to this personal event. This event doesn'tbelong to any “Vendor Timeline” because the timeline user created it.There are three (3) hyperlinks at the bottom of this event: “Edit” 7318,“Delete” 7319, “Sub-Timelines” 7320. If Mary Jones clicks on “Edit”button 7318, she would be able to edit the event she created directly inthe planning system as it is shown in FIG. 11EE. By clicking on “Delete”7319, a “Timeline User” event could be deleted. By clicking on“Sub-Timelines” 7320, a screen will pop up that allows the target“Sub-Timeline” for the events to be changed. The event could be movedfrom one “Sub-Timeline” to another or could be removed from all“Sub-Timelines”, or one Event could get repeated in many“Sub-Timelines”. As shown in FIG. 11E, bar 7321A shows that event “MomBirthday Party” 7321 is in the sub-timeline 7342. GOOGLE sub-timeline7342 is shown collapsed, as discussed in more detail with respect toFIG. 11F.

In FIG. 11E if user clicks on “Event” button. The same dialog as “Edit”event shown in FIG. 11E will pop up, but its title would say “AddEvent”.

Referring to FIG. 11EE, as continuation of FIG. 11E “Timeline User”,Maryjones@gmail.com clicked on “Edit” hyperlink under event “MomBirthday Party” 7321. The screen “Edit Event” 7330 pops up. In thisscreen Mary Jones could update Event “Title”, Event “Description”, Eventduration entering date/time in “From” 7334 and “To” 7335 fields. Event“Color” 7336 can be changed by user's taste for personal categorization.For event “Type” 7337 Mary Jones could use an existing event “Type” thatshe created before or she could create a new event “Type” by clicking on“+New Type” under the drop down. In field “Media” 7339 user could choosezero or many media files 7338. A “Media” can be removed by clicking on“Remove” button 7340.

On the right hand side this event can be associated to zero or many“Sub-Timelines” or a brand new “Sub-Timelines” can be added by clickingon “+” button 7341. At this time this event is associated to “GOOGLE”,“Sub-Timeline” 7342. Finally Mary Jones clicks on “Save” 7345 and herevents get updated, otherwise she clicks on “Cancel” Button 7344 and herchanges doesn't get updated.

The “New Event” dialog has the same components as shown in FIG. 11EE.

Referring to FIG. 11F, “Timeline User”, Maryjones@gmail.com can click onbutton 7353 and collapse/expand “Sub-Timeline”, “Daniel son #1” 7352 orclick on “X” 7351 and hide “Sub-Timeline”, “Daniel son #1” 7352 bydouble clicking on “Sub-Timeline”, “Daniel son #1” under “Sub-Timeline”menu, “Daniel son #1” can be unhidden.

As it is displayed the same event shown in main timeline can also bedisplayed in zero, one, or more different “Sub-Timeline”. It means “MainTimeline” always displays all events. Some events may only be in the“Main Timeline” if no “Sub-Timeline” is selected by a user.

Referring to FIG. 11G, “Timeline User”, Maryjones@gmail.com canunsubscribe from a “Vendor Timeline”. For example after her second sonis finishing first grade, she can unsubscribe from “1stGr-Math-Science-Mr Star” 7364. To do so she clicks on left menu “MyVendors”, search for “Anderson School” and double click on “Andersonschool” to see list of “User Vendor”, timelines. Then she can hover over“Vendor Timeline”, “1st-Gr-Math-Science-Mr Star” and clicks on thebutton 7361 to unsubscribe. As it is shown the planning system providesa uniform user interface (UI) for subscribing and unsubscribing to anyvendor instead of digging into different vendor website(s) to try tofind how to “Unsubscribe”. For example, to subscribe to “TARGET” and“MACYS” websites and later on to unsubscribe from them requiresfamiliarity with their ever changing websites.

In screen 11G, if Mary Jones wants to synchronize her planning systemwith GOOGLE in two ways she could do that by clicking on hyperlink “Syncwith GOOGLE” 7365 and/or screen 7371 shown in FIG. 11J will pop up.

Referring to FIG. 11H, continuation of FIG. 11G “Timeline User”,Maryjones@gmail.com, will login to GOOGLE Calendar providing GMAILusername 7370 and GMAIL password 7371. Mary Jones could decide to do one(1) way or two (2) way synchronization between GOOGLE calendar and theplanning system by clicking on Check box for “Export from PLANNINGSYSTEM to GOOGLE” 7372 and/or Check box for “Import from GOOGLE intoPLANNING SYSTEM” 7373. The user could also choose to “Synch VendorEvents” 7374 and/or “Synch only events are in a selected “Sub-Timeline”7375. Mary Jones could also choose the “Target Sub-Timeline” 7376 wherethe synchronization will appear in its own dedicated sub-timeline. Somethird parties provide an API to the public for synchronization.Conventional synchronization can be used in accordance with theprinciples of the invention.

Referring to FIG. 11I, “Timeline User”, Jpeterson@gmail.com as useridentification 7380, John Peterson, logged in to “Timeline User Home”.Not all “Vendor Timeline” that he has subscribed to have pop-up ads. Inthis screen, “Jpeterson” has subscribed to the “Dr Hashemi” timeline.“Dr Hashemi” has provided a pop-up ads on some of his “Timeline Event”.For example he created a pop-up ads associated for “Pre-op DoctorVisit”. The Ads shown at 7381 on the right hand side of the screen canbe blinking and rotating, but these ads instead of being “PushedAdvertisement”, are controlled by the user and are considered pulledadvertisement. The first reason for that is that these ads are onlycoming from “Vendor Timeline” listed “My Vendors” in the left menu.Secondly even the ads coming from the list of “My Vendors” could befiltered by the “Timeline User” provided keyword. If User clicks onrotating ads 7381, a pop-up screen will show up as shown in FIG. 11L.

Referring to FIG. 11J, “Timeline User”, Jpeterson@gmail.com, JohnPeterson, can click on “Add more keywords”. This will allow adding ofnew keywords in order to filter pop-up ads. The existing list ofkeywords could be disabled and enabled by clicking on the check box nextto each keyword. As it is shown keyword “Surgery” is checked and that iswhy the pop-up ads form “Dr. Hashemi” pop-up ads are allowed to show upas pop-up ads next to John Peterson screen because he chooses so.Finally when user clicks on “Save” button all new keyword filters getsaved. This feature in the planning system allows to users to pick andchoose their ads, their vendor from a particular minority group,religious group, etc. Therefore the internet pop-up ads could befiltered by choice.

In certain implementations, in the same fashion that a user subscribedto schools, a user could subscribe to department stores and see all thecoupons under one sub-timeline. These sub-timelines could be hidden andunhidden. When they are needed they could be unhidden and furtherexpanded/unexpanded as discussed earlier herein. For example, MACY'Scoupons could be hidden until one needs to go shopping there.

In one or more embodiments, the system may be used to track historicalcoupons. For example, a user may be interested in comparing the couponscurrently offered by advisors with coupons offered by those advisors theprevious year at the same time, e.g. comparing post-Thanksgiving “BlackFriday” deals of the current year with the previous year. Although ayear is used as an example, any timeframe, such as weeks, days, ormonths, may be used to identify coupons to compare.

In one or more embodiments, the system may enable a user to share atimeline or a portion of a timeline with other users, such as consumers.The timeline or portion may be shared as a copy, so that the secondperson can edit or change the copy without affecting the user'stimeline.

Referring to FIG. 11K “Vendor Timeline” entry/event could come fromthree (3) sources:

Category A—Vendors that enter their own entries (Events, coupons) intotheir “Vendor timeline”

Category B—Vendors that their entries will be auto-populated by “Autopopulate” module

Category C—Vendors that provide two ways API for the planning system tocommunicate with them such as FACEBOOK, GROUPON, TWITTER, etc. through a“Customized Populate module”

A vendor can be in Hybrid mode and be in more than one Category whichmeans a “Vendor User” can have an auto-populate event/timeline (CategoryB) created by the planning system as well as self-entry event/timeline(Category A).

Referring to FIG. 11K, “Timeline User”, Jpeterson@gmail.com, JohnPeterson, has subscribed to two “Vendor Timeline”, “OFFICEMAX” 7406, and“RADIOSHACK” 7405. Both of these are falling into “category B” ofvendors that their “Vendor Timeline” entries/events gets auto-populatedby the planning system.

The planning system uses an “Auto populate” algorithm. In order toauto-populate a “Vendor Timeline”, the planning system admin manuallysubscribes to all popular vendors who offer e-mail subscription usingthe planning system e-mail account(s). The planning system “Autopopulate” algorithm reads the planning system received e-mail from thesevendors and insert an event for each e-mail into the right “VendorTimeline”.

Referring to FIG. 11K John Peterson has “Sub-Timeline”, “Radio Shack”7405 that is expanded and it shows two events, “Summer Clearancesale-In-Store-End Jun. 29, 2013 . . . ”7403 and “7 Days Left to Shop forDad!” 7402. John Peterson has “Sub-Timeline”, “OFFICMAX” 7401 that isexpanded and it shows one event, “Columbus Day Savings %20 off InStore+Online” 7401. These events are extracted from e-mail subscriptionsto RADIO SHACK and OFFICEMAX by the planning system “Auto populate”algorithm behind the scene. If “Timeline User”, John Peterson 7400,clicks on button “More Info” in the event entry “Columbus Day Savings%20 off In Store+Online” 7401 the pop-up shown in FIG. 11L will bedisplayed.

If a vendor like “MACYS” has different category of subscription, such as“MACYS Furniture”, “MACYS Kitchen”, etc. The planning system could usethe same “Auto populate algorithm” but use different planning systemAdmin e-mail account. The combination of vendor name and “PLANNINGSYSTEM-admin-e-mail” will be the determination factor for the algorithmto decide which “Vendor Timeline” an event belongs to and needs to becreated in. For example for “MACYS” we could have multiple “VendorTimeline” in the planning system such as “MACYS Furniture”, “MACYSKitchen”. The e-mails associated with each category will land as anevent in “Vendor Timeline”, “MACYS Furniture” or “MACYS Kitchen”accordingly.

Referring to FIG. 11L, continuation form FIG. 11K after “Timeline User”,“John Peterson” clicked on “More Info” on one of the auto-populatesevents. In this screen if user clicks on the “RADIOSHACK-Clearance EventSave up to 75%”, the “RADIOSHACK” web site will be opened and user couldpurchase the item form “RADIOSHACK” directly. In this situation theplanning system is just one stop shop for all coupons/offers/events. Theplanning system is just a layer that represents all vendors with thesame look and feel, with same vendor subscription/un-subscription userinterface, etc.

-   -   Vendor<—Planning System Advisor—>Consumer        The planning system offers its own uniform purchasing portal for        all Vendors and it could take advantage of GOOGLE WALLET,        PAYPALL, etc.

Referring to FIG. 11M it shows the body of original e-mail“RADIOSHACK-Clearance Event Save up to 75%” 7421, received fromRadioShack in “PLANNING SYSTEM-Admin-e-mail” account. The sender is“RADIOSHACK” 7422 and the e-mail subject “Summer Clearance SaleIn-Store-Ends 6/29” 7423 is the “Event Title” in the planning system in“Sub-Timeline”, “RADIOSHACK”.

Referring to FIG. 11N shows the “Timeline User”, Jpeterson@gmail.com,John Peterson, 7431 “Timeline User Home”. This screen shows how theplanning system can be used for vendors that invite people to eventssuch as performances. Screen 7430 shows another example of “VendorTimeline”, “KENNEDYCENTER” that is auto-populated by the planning systemand is “subscribed to” by “Timeline User”, “John Peterson”. This “VendorTimeline” is displayed under John Peterson's “Sub-Timeline”,“KENNEDYCENTER” 7432. The event “Top 5 reasons to see Peter & theStarcatcher next week—$39 seats!”, 7433, can be viewed in more detail byclicking on “More Info” button that opens up a pop-up. If user clicks onthe pop-up, the “KENNEDY CENTER” site will open up and it allows theticket to be purchased form “KENNEDY CENTER”. Another user options isthat after user sees the event he can physically go to Kennedy centerand purchase the ticket there.

The planning system offers a one stop shop for all coupons/events, lifeevents, vendor events, advises, etc. There are other internet sites thatoffer central place for coupons, but they are not Smart Calendar orSocial Media at the same time. However, the planning system is a smartcalendar that is social media for consumers and vendors in one stop shopand covers C2C (Consumer to Consumer), (Business 2 Consumer) and B2B(Business to Business) relationships/transactions.

The Event “Engagement Party in Hilton Hotel” 7434 is an example of anevent that “Timeline User” “John Peterson” created and sites next to the“Auto populated” events.

To differentiate an event that “Timeline User created” from an eventthat belongs to a “Vendor User”, one can look at the strip at the bottomof the events. If the hyperlink under the events read as “Edit”,“Delete”, “Sib-timelines” then that is a “Timeline User” generatedevent. If the bottom strip says “Delete”, “Sub-timelines”, “Review &Rate” then it is a “Vendor User” generated event. As it is shown inevent 7433 belong to “KENNEDY CENTER”, the strip under event show“Delete”, “Sub-timelines”, “Review & Rate” because this event belong toTravelocity.

Referring to FIG. 11O shows how the “Timeline User” can be an advisor ora vendor. A “Timeline User”, Jpeterson@gmail.com, John Peterson, 7441can click on the hyperlink “Create Vendor” and the screen “CreateVendor” 7477 will pop up, John Peterson could enter the title in field“Title” 7442 for his “Vendor User” account, the company name if he hasany in the field “Company” 7443 and upload a logo file in field “Logo”7444. Finally he clicks on button “Create” 7446 and “Vendor User”account gets created for John Peterson with the same userid. From now ona new hyperlink on top of the screen that says “Vendor Home” will allowJohn Peterson to switch to his “Vendor User” account. When John Petersonis on “Vendor User Home”, he could click on a hyperlink called“TimelineUser” and switch back to “Timeline User Home”. When JohnPeterson is on the Vendor side he could create many of his own “VendorTimeline” and provide free advise that all users could subscribed to orhe could sell goods/services. This allows a dynamic e-commerce web sitecreation for a simple consumer such as John Peterson who wants to be avendor of goods/services/advise without the pain of hiring someone tocreate a static website for him and without doing any marketing to findsubscriber, he could start from friends and it could go viral.

Referring to FIG. 11P the “Timeline User”. “Mary Jones” 7450 can filterhis events by clicking on left menu “Filter by keyword” 7452, and entera keyword. As a result all events that have this keyword will be shown.

There is one more subject here that is good to mention. As it is shownin screen 7451 the event, “MACYS, October sale all furniture are 30% off. . . ”, 7454 shows list of offers by “MACYS” and Mary Jones could clickon “Buy Now” and purchase this item from Macys, through the planningsystem.

Referring to FIG. 11Q the “Timeline User”. “Mary Jones” 7460 can filterthe events by color. The time an event is getting created, “TimelineUser” decides on the event color. Also every event created by the “UserVendor” may have a special color. Color could have a special meaning forthe “Timeline User” or “Vendor User” to classify their events. Everyevent on each timeline could be filtered if “Timeline user” clicks on“Filter by color” 7462, and click on a color. In this screen Mary Jones,clicked on “Green” color 7463. As a result all the events that have thesame green color will be shown. In this example Event 7464 and anothergreen color event are the only events displayed in all timelines.

Referring to FIG. 11R, “Timeline User”, Maryjones@gmail.com, 7470 couldfilter her events by

“Event type”. Every event that is getting created by the “Timeline User”or “Vendor User” has an “Event Type” that is either created by the useron the fly or user uses an existing “Event type”. Every event on eachtimeline could be filtered if “Timeline User” clicks on “Filter by EventType” 7472, and choose a type or enter a type. As a result all theevents that have the same type will be shown.

There is no screen for “Navigate to Date”. If “Timeline User” clicks on“Navigate to Date” on left menu, “Timeline User” could choose a day inthe calendar to jump to those dates in the timeline, or could click onthe hyperlink year or hyperlink month to scroll the timeline up/down tothose dates.

Referring to FIG. 11S, “Timeline User” could click on a day and see theevents in different hours 7506 of the day 7505. As it is shown, all theSub-Timelines 7500 that are not hidden will be displayed in parallel anddepending on the number of events that are under each “Sub-Timeline” thewidth of the “Sub-Timeline” could be increased or decreased. For exampleunder “Sub-Timeline”, “Timeline A”, the “Event 1”, 7502 starts at 1:00AM and ends at 8:00 AM, the “Event 2”, 7503 starts at 4:00 AM andfinishes at 9:00 AM. Since “Event 1” and “Event 2” having conflict oroverlap, the planning system algorithm opens a new invisible column forconflicting events. However event “Event 5” and “Event 3” don't have anyoverlap and could stay in the same invisible column. The width of thisinvisible column is equal to the event strip. The “Sub-Timeline”,“Timeline B” also shows 3 parallel events, “Event 6” 7508, “Event 7”7509 and “Event 8” 7510, as it is displayed they all have conflict andare in 3 different invisible columns.

FIG. 12A represents a Prior Art one-dimensional calendar. As is typical,all events are listed by date on the flat, one-dimensional calendar. Bycontrast, in accordance with the principles of the invention, thesystems and methods described herein implement the use of what can bereferred to as a three-dimensional calendar system as represented inFIG. 12B. In one implementation, this planning system utilizes timelinesand sub-timelines for categorization and separation of life events ofusers. As illustrated in the example shown in FIG. 12B, the maincalendar, for example, of a CEO in a two-dimensional representation caninclude all events of the user, which can be referred to, for example,as the main calendar or timeline. The other dimensions, extending into athird-dimension by representation in FIG. 12B, shows categorized eventsby categorized layers or sub-timelines, for example, such as departmentprojects, travel and sports.

Referring again to FIG. 12A, a typical calendar is displayed.Traditional calendars are usually 2-dimensional. Whether we have month,week or daily view of a calendar we still have 2-dimental calendarbecause we only keep track of the event and their associated time. Aftera while a typical calendar gets cluttered and events that are unrelatedappear next to each other or on top of each other. Some calendarcompanies added a color feature which means during event creation usercan associate each event with a color. FIG. 12A represents thesedifferences graphically with lines and spacing. This allows user toclassify different event type with different color/graphics to maketheir calendar more readable, but the user interface for calendar ispoor. In FIG. 12 A shows that all unrelated events are on top of eachother and in once glance it is hard to see the life dashboard.

Referring to FIG. 12B shows a company CEO calendar in accordance withthe principles of the invention. He is managing several projects indifferent departments, plus his work related travel, personal travel andhis sport activities are taking portion of his calendar. If he keeps hiswork related calendar and his personal calendar separated he will miss ameeting or an event due to unforeseen conflicts. As you see his calendaris much cluttered. If we add a new dimension to his calendar called“Calendar Type” or “Event Category”, he would see events that arerelated and belong to the same category in one calendar. These calendarsare parallel to each other. In other implementations, parallel timelinescan be used instead of parallel calendar view.

Referring to FIG. 12C three types of timelines are introduced:Vendor/Advisor timeline, Main timeline and Sub-timeline. The days inthis timeline are separated by dashed lines. A teacher in a school cancreate classroom events such as math test, violin session, Art+ classvolunteering, etc. in his/her Vendor/Advisor Timeline. As it is shown inFIG. 12C a parent can synchronize his GOOGLE Calendar with the planningsystem and the orange events will be displayed in Main Timeline. User isallowed to go and change the landing spot of GOOGLE events and put themin right Sub-Timeline. If the parents subscribe to the child ‘schooltimeline’ all the events that the teacher created will be added to themain timeline as well as to a the dedicated Sub-Timeline called ‘child’as it is shown in FIG. 12D.

Referring to FIG. 12D it is shown that a parent, Mary Jones, hassubscribed to a teacher timeline and all classroom events are fed intoMary Jones's Main-Timeline as well as ‘child’ dedicated Sub-Timeline. Ateacher timeline is an example of a vendor that creates its own eventmanually.

Referring to FIG. 12E it is shown that a parent has subscribed to MACYStimeline and all MAYCS events/sales are fed into Mary Jones'sMain-Timeline as well as ‘MACYS’ Sub-Timeline. “MACYS” is the example ofa vendor that is deals/coupons/offers are populated through planningsystem algorithm

Referring to FIG. 12G it is shown that a parent has subscribed toPLANXUS IT project and all “PLANXUS IT project” events are fed into MaryJones's Main-Timeline as well as ‘PLANXUS IT project’ Sub-Timeline. Thisis an example of using the planning system for project management. As itis shown the user has 3 parallel Sub-Timelines and only one MainTimeline. This view provides a different view to one's life. It is morelike a dashboard of life's event.

Referring to FIG. 12 H if the API to FACEBOOK, TWITTER, LINKEDIN areavailable eventually different social media could come under theproposed planning system. The popular social Media such as FACEBOK andGOOGLE+ are not calendar and calendars such as GOOGLE or OUTLOOK are notsocial media. The new planning system that we are proposing here iscombining Calendar and social media to have a super calendar that allowspurchasing, providing advice, etc. as well as vendor teaming. All othersites co-exist. We are not competitor we are just a platform.

Referring to FIG. 13 shows that different vendors such as valley-flower,Queen Wedding Gown, Mama Cake and ABC flower each have their own “VendorTimeline” and they offer their own coupons/events/offers. Now“Best-Wedding Planner” wants to team up with couple of vendor and createa team. He sent teaming requests to four (4) vendors “Valley-flower”,“Queen-Wedding-Gown”, “Mama-Cake” and “ABC flower”. After negotiation,“Best-Wedding planner” chooses “Valley-flower”, “Queen-Wedding Gown” and“Mama-Cake” as his team member but he did not accept “ABC flower” ormaybe “ABC flower” didn't want to team up with “Best-Wedding planner”.The negotiation is a 2 way system invitation, acceptance and rejectionusing a workflow offered in planning system.

With these systems and methods, the following can be achieved: dynamicpartnership happened on the fly; they can add new team members or removeteam members; for their teaming they don't need the creation of anywebsite such as static website “Travelocity” that can only deal withtravel, air, and car rental and nothing else; if “Best-Wedding planner”as part of this teaming wants to team up with MACYS it can happen on thefly without planning; the B2B advertisement could happen between vendorsbefore teaming or as part of teaming; from the “Timeline User”perspective, it is invisible whether a vendor is a “Team Vendor” or a“Single Vendor”. He/she could subscribe to both in the same fashion.

Referring to FIG. 14A “Vendor User”, “nordstrom@gmail.com”, NORDSTROM asuser identification 7000, has switched to “Timeline User Home”. In theplanning system every “Vendor User” has a “Timeline User account”. Inthis screen “Vendor User”, “NORDSTROM”, 7000, is trying to compare“Vendor Timeline”, “MACYS Furniture” with its own “Vendor Timeline”,“NORDSTROM Furniture”. In this paragraph we refer to “NORDSTROM” asuser, instead of “Timeline User”. In order to do so “NORDSTROM” userfinds his own “Timeline Vendor” in list of available “Vendor Timeline”and subscribe to “NORDSTROM Furniture” and assign it to “Sub-Timeline”,“NORDSTROM Furniture” 7004 and by double clicking on button 7007 it willbe displayed. Then “NORDSTROM” user finds “Vendor Timeline”, “MACYSFurniture”, subscribe to it and then assign it to “Sub-Timeline”, “MACYSFurniture” 7003. By double clicking on 7006 it will be displayed. Now if“NORDSTROM” user has two “Sub-Timeline”, “NORDSTROM” and “MACYS”parallel next to each other. He could compare his own events/offersbelong to “NORDSTROM Furniture” with “MACYS Furniture” events/offersside by side. He can scroll up and down and look at all theevents/offers in the past and near future. This allows “NORDSTROM” savemoney on competitor market analysis; he can have series of competitorsassigned to different “Sub-Timeline” and compare their activity on dailybasis. Also from the event/offers/coupons offered by competitor in thepast, “NORDSTROM” could predict the future event/offers/coupons. Forexample “Vendor Timeline”, “Macys Furniture” offers “MACYS—October Saleall furniture 30% off” 7005 on Jan. 10, 2013, versus “NORDSTROM Livingroom set is 10% off” 7004 on Jan. 12, 2013.

Referring to FIG. 14B “Vendor User”, “nordstrom@gmail.com”, NORDSTROM asuser identification 7000, is doing exactly what has been explained inFIG. 14A, the only difference is that “NORDSTROM Furniture” Event 7013,has multiple “Vendor Offer” 7014 with price. Also “MACYS Furniture”Event 7015, has multiple “Vendor Offer” 7016 with price that can becompared by “Vendor User”, “NORDSTROM” as a secret shopper. The blinkingadvertisement, 7012 also shows all the pop-up ads by “NORDSTROMFurniture” and “MACYS Furniture”. As it was mentioned before these adsare only rotating on list of “My vendors”. Therefore if “NORDSTROM” useronly subscribed to “NORDSTROM furniture” and “MACYS furniture” and othercompetitor, he could compare his competitor's pop-up ads. He couldfurther filter the pop-up ads as it was explained in screen 7390 andonly see selective pop-up ads for competitor market analysis.

Referring to FIG. 14C “Timeline User”, “jpeterson@gmailcom” as useridentification 7020 has subscribed to “Vendor Timeline”, “NORDSTROMfurniture” and assigned it to “Sub-Timeline”, “NORDSTROM furniture”7023. He has also subscribed to “Vendor Timeline”, “MACYS furniture” andassigned it to “Sub-Timeline”, “MACYS furniture”, 7022. Now JohnPeterson could compare two different vendor's Event/Offers/Coupons sideby side. He could scroll up and down and on the “Sub-Timeline”,“NORDSTROM furniture”, 7023 and compare them with event/offers/couponsin “Vendor Timeline”, “MACYS furniture” in the past. He could predictthe future event/offers/coupons by their historical coupons. If“NORDSTOM” offered 10% furniture discount in January 2013, there is agood chance the same deal will be offered by “NORDSTOM” in January 2014.

Referring to FIG. 15A, “Timeline User”, “jpeterson@gmail.com” as useridentification 7380, wants to share portion of his life with a friend.He wants to share the vendors he used for his wedding with his friend.The best way is just to share some events on his wedding “Sub-Timeline”with his friends. He can give his friend permission to re-share, copy,add/delete/edit events the events that belong to him. As it is displayedhe has many events in his “Sub-Timeline” and “My Life with my husband”,but he doesn't not want to share all his events in his entire“Sub-Timeline”. He would like to share some of the events related tovendors he used for example “Selecting Wedding flower” 7087, and“Engagement Party in Hilton Hotel” 7088. He doesn't want to share event“Playing basketball with my boyfriend” 7086. In order to do so, heclicks on left menu “Sub-Timelines”, 7082, and then hover over,“Sub-Timeline”, “My life with my husband”, 7083 and clicks on “Share”button 7084 and the dialog on FIG. 15 B will pop up.

Referring to FIG. 15B, as continuation of FIG. 17A, “Jpeterson@gmail” istrying to share portion of one his “Sub-Timeline” with a friend. Indialog 7090 he selects target “User” 7090 and enters his friend name as“MyFriend”. In order to find friend's name he can click on “Find User”button, 7092 and let the planning system find his friend for his by namesearch. Then select “From” date, 7093, and “To” date, 7094, and thenselect the permissions that target user need to have to view/modify/ownthe shared “Sub-Timeline”. He can provide permission such as “Add Event”7095, “Edit Event” 7096, “Delete Event” 7097, “Rate Advisor” 7098,“Comment” 7099, “Purchase” 7100, “Re-share” 7101, “Add Media” 7102,“Delete Media” 7103 and “Copy to another timeline” 7104 to the targetuser. After choosing appropriate permissions he can click on “Save”button, 7105 and the sharing process initiated. If he clicks on “Cancel”button, 7106, no sharing will be initiated.

Referring to FIG. 15C, after clicking on “Save” button in previousscreen, FIG. 15B, he will be redirected to “Select Events To Share”dialog, 7110, in this dialog he clicks on the events that he would liketo share with his friend. In this example out of all his events, he justclicked on the check box next to 4 events, “Engagement Party in HiltonHotel located at . . . ” 7111, “Buy Gown from Queen Gown located at . .. ” 7112, “Selecting wedding flower . . . ” 7113, etc. Finally he clickson “Share” button, 7114, after pressing this button, sharing process iscompleted and portion of the selected sub-timeline and checked eventswill be available to target user, “My Friend”. Depending on the type ofselected permissions, his friend can re-share, copy, add/delete/editevents the events that belongs to Jpeterson@gmail on his“Sub-timeline”,“My life with my husband”.

Referring to FIG. 16A, it is displayed that each “Vendor User” can havezero or more events in his/her “Vendor Timeline”. Every “Vendor Event”can have zero or many offers associated to it. For example “VendorUser”, Nordstrom@gmail.com as user identification 7000, clicks on leftmenu “Vendor Timelines” and then clicks on his “Vendor-Timeline”,“Nordstrom Furniture” 7031. He has two events (7032 and 7033) in this“Vendor Timeline”; also he can search for a desired event by clicking on“Find” button 7034 or directly select desired event on his “VendorTimeline”. In order to add “Vendor Offers”, “Vendor User” clicks onhyperlink “Offers” at the bottom of the event 7032.

Referring to FIG. 16B, as continuation from FIG. 16 A, “Vendor User”,Nordstrom@gmail.com as user identification 7000, Opens “Manage Offers”dialog, 7041, he can enter “Title” of the “Vendor Offer” in 7042 and“Price” of the “Vendor offer” in 7043 and then click on “Add offer tolist” button 7045 to add the “Vendor offer” to the offer list, also atany time “Vendor user” can click on “Finish” button 7044 to finishoffer-adding-process.

Referring to FIG. 16C, as continuation from FIG. 16 B, “Vendor User”,Nordstrom@gmail.com as user identification 7000, can add another “Vendoroffer” by entering “Title” of the “Vendor offer” in 7051 and “Price” ofthe offer in 7052 and click on “Add offer to list” button 7053. As itshown in the 7054 the new “Vendor Offer” is added to the list. At anytime “Vendor user” can click on “Finish” button 7055 to finishoffer-adding-process.

Referring to FIG. 16D, as continuation from FIG. 16 C, “Vendor User”,Nordstrom@gmail.com as user identification 7000, optionally can remove a“Vendor offer” using “Manage Offers” Dialog, 7062, for example he clickson “Remove” button 7064 to remove second “Vendor offer”. Afteradding-offers-process finishes he clicks on “Finished” button 7063, inorder to close “Manage offers” dialog 7062 and allow the “Vendor Offer”changes gets applied to the “Vendor Event”.

Referring to FIG. 16E, “Vendor User”, Nordstrom@gmail.com as useridentification 7000, in his “Vendor Timeline”, “Nordstrom Furniture”7073, has updated his first “Vendor Event”. He has also added two“Vendor Offer” 7072. Finally “Vendor User”, Nordstrom, clicks on “VendorTimeline” left menu and selects “Vendor Timeline”, “Nordstrom Furniture”and clicks on “Publish” button.

Referring to FIG. 16F, “Timeline User”, Jpeterson@gmail.com, JohnPeterson, and all “Timeline Users” that subscribed to “Vendor Timeline”,“NORDSTROM Furniture” will see updated “Vendor event” and “Vendor offer”in their Main Timeline and/or Target Sub-Timeline.

Referring to FIG. 17A “Timeline User”, JPeterson@gmail.com, logs in tothe Planning System Mobile through a mobile device and he will see thedefault home screen. “Timeline User”, “John Peterson” can create newevent by touching “+” button 5004 displayed in FIG. 17G. He can open thetraditional calendar view by touching button 5005 that is shown in FIG.17H. He can open the “Life Dashboard” by touching button 5003 that isshown in FIG. 17J. Moreover John Peterson can touch button 5001 foropening up the side menu and other options as shown in FIG. 17B. He cantouch button 5002 to sign-out from the application. In the home screenFIG. 17A “Timeline User” sees latest event sorted by dates in descendingorder. All days are separated by grey dashed lines 5027. Days thatcontinually have no event collapsed into one line 5008 with “From” and“To” date range labeled them. This allows saving space on small mobiledevice. “Timeline User” may see two kinds of events in this screen.Events that are coming from subscribed “Vendor User” 5006 or events thatare created by the “Timeline User” 5007. These two types of events canbe distinguished by looking at the color of the event left border.Events with no colored border on the left side are created by “TimelineUser”. Events with colored border on the left side are coming from“Vendor Timeline”. This color is selected by the “Vendor User” duringcreation of “Vendor Timeline” depending on the “Event Type”. JohnPeterson could drag his finger up and down and make the screen scroll upand down in order to see all his events in this screen. Double tappingon any event, such as “5^(th) grade math Test no 22”, 5040 will expandthe event and the detail of that even will be displayed as shown in FIG.17I. This screen is similar to “Main Timeline” in the Planning SystemWeb in which all events are shown in chronological order.

Referring to FIG. 17B it is a sidebar menu that opens up after “TimelineUser” clicks on button 5001 in FIG. 17B. The “Timeline User”, JohnPeterson, will see four (4) options in the left sidebar menu. The firstitem in the sidebar menu is “Show All Events” 5009 which is a shortcutto home screen to display all events without filter. By touching thearrow 5046 the screen shown in FIG. 17A will be displayed. The seconditem in the sidebar menu is “Show Life Dashboard” 5010 which is a shortcut to FIG. 17J where it shows “Main Timeline” and zero or more“Sub-Timeline” in parallel views like life dashboard. By touching thearrow 5047 the screen shown in FIG. 17J will be displayed. The thirditem in the sidebar menu is “My Vendors” 5011 and it shows the list ofsubscribed vendors FIG. 17C. By touching the arrow 5048 the screen shownin FIG. 17C will be displayed. The fourth item in the sidebar menu is“My Timelines” 5012 that shows the list of “Sub-Timeline” created by the“Timeline user”. By touching the arrow 5049 the screen shown in FIG. 17Dwill be displayed. Touching “Close” button 5045 will collapse and closethe sidebar menu.

Referring to FIG. 17C it is when “Timeline User” has touched andexpanded “My Vendors” on sidebar menu. “Timeline User”, John Peterson,will see list of “Vendor Users” that he has subscribed to. “TimelineUser” may subscribe to different “Vendor timeline” belonging todifferent “Vendor Users” or subscribe to different “Vendor Timeline” ofthe same “Vendor User”. If John Peterson subscribed to different “VendorTimeline” of the same “Vendor User”, the hyperlink number 5016 next tothe “Vendor User” shows how many of them are subscribed to. For example“Vendor User”, “Anderson School” 5015 has 2 timelines for “5^(th)Grade-Social-Study-Mrs Bunch” 5050 and “1^(st)Grade-Math-Science-Mr-Star”. The hyperlink “(2)” 5016 shows that JohnPeterson has subscribed to two (2) “Vendor Timeline” belonging to“Vendor User”, “Anderson School”. John Peterson is viewing all “AndersonSchool” “Vendor Timeline” because he touched on hyperlink “(2)” 5016 andexpanded the “Anderson School” list of “Vendor Timeline”

If John Peterson clicks on the arrow next to “5^(th)Grade-Social-Study-Mrs Bunch” 5050, all events in FIG. 17A gets filteredand it only shows the event belong to “5^(th) Grade-Social-Study-MrsBunch” displayed in FIG. 17CC. “User Timeline”, John Peterson can searchfor a vendor by entering a keyword in field 5014 and only event thathave that keyword will be displayed. John Peterson can also subscribe tonew Vendor by clicking on button “Subscribe To Vendors” 5013 that openup FIG. 17E.

Referring to FIG. 17CC, “Timeline User”, John Peterson has filtered allhis events to “5^(th) Grade-Social-Study-Mrs Bunch” 5050. By touching“Button” 5051 the filter gets cleared and FIG. 17A with all unfilteredevents will be displayed.

Referring to FIG. 17D “Timeline User”, John Peterson has touched “MyTimelines” in his side menu bar and he can see list of his own created“Sub Timelines”. He has created four (4) “Sub-Timelines”, “Aidan Son#2”, “Daniel #1 son”, “Dental”, “Elbow Surgery”. John can edit each ofthese “Sub-Timelines” by touching the “Edit” hyperlink 5017 that willopen up FIG. 17F. In FIG. 17 F, John can change title or color of the“Sub-Timeline” he wants to edit.

Referring to FIG. 17E “Timeline User”, John Peterson is trying to find avendor and subscribe to it. He can enter a keyword in field 5018 andfind the desired vendor. He can expand the vendor name by touching thehyperlink number next to the name 5080 or touching the arrow 5070 andlook at list of “Vendor Timeline” that belongs to the selected “VendorUser”. In this example John Peterson has expanded “Vendor User”, “HealthCare” and can see four (4) “Vendor timelines”: “General Health”, “AfterHeart Surgery”, “Brain Surgery” and “Preparation before Pregnancy”. Johnwants to subscribe to “Brain Surgery” 5060 and touch the “Select”hyperlink 5060 and then touch “Finish” button 5020. This is an exampleof subscribing to a vendor/advisor such as “Health care” that is notselling any goods or services but provides advice. In this case it is“Health care” related advises.

Referring to FIG. 17F as continuation from FIG. 17 D when “TimelineUser”, John Peterson touched “+Add Timeline” button 5016 in order tocreate a new “Sub-Timeline”. In FIG. 17F he can enter “Sub-Timeline”title in field “Timeline Title” 5100 and select “Sub-Timeline” color bytouching on one of the colored square 5110. Finally he can touch “SaveChanges” button and a new “Sub-Timeline” gets created.

Referring to FIG. 17G as continuation from FIG. 17A when “TimelineUser”, John Peterson, touched the “+” button 5001 in order to create anew event. In FIG. 17G John Peterson enters the event title in field“Title” 5120, the event description in field “Description” 5130, theduration of the event in Field “Date & Time, From” 5140 and “Date &Time, To” 5150, color by touching one of the colored square 5160. JohnPeterson can also associate this event to zero or many “Sub-Timeline”under section named “Timelines” 5021. Furthermore an event can beassociated to zero or more media files that could be browsed anduploaded along with the event, such as pictures, videos, etc. To do thisJohn Peterson scrolls down and click on media and uploads zero or moremedia files. This functionally is not displayed in this screen howeverit is the same as Planning System Web version. Finally John Petersonclicks on “Save Changes” button 5170 and the new event gets created in“Timeline user” timeline and/or “Sub-Timelines”.

Referring to FIG. 17H is the continuation of FIG. 17A when “TimelineUser”, John Peterson, touched the calendar button 5005 in order to see acalendar view of “Main Timeline”. In FIG. 17 H. a traditional calendarview is displayed. All days that have events behind the scene arecolored green. John Peterson could click on any of the days such as“Jan. 27, 2014” 5022 and see the list of events on that day.

Referring to FIG. 17I is the continuation of FIG. 17A when “TimelineUser”, John Peterson, touched one of the events such as “EngagementParty in Hilton Hotel” 5041 and the Event detail screen is displayedthat allows editing the selected event as well. In FIG. 17I JohnPeterson scheduled his Engagement Party on “Jan. 17, 2014” starting at8:00 PM and ending at 11:59 PM. This event has three (3) media filesattached to it, a picture 5023, from “Hilton Hotel Contract” 5024 and“Engagement party check list” 5230. John Peterson could click on “EditEvent” button 5210 and edit this event refer to FIG. 17G and add morepicture to it. The beauty of the planning system is that all media filessuch as pictures, documents, videos, etc. related to an event can getuploaded as attachment and be attached to the event for ever. Since theplanning system is a Calendar that is also a Social Media, everythingwill appear in its own bucket in time and space.

Referring to FIG. 17J is the continuation of FIG. 17A when “TimelineUser”, John Peterson, touched the button 5003. In FIG. 17J shows “MainTimeline” and zero or more “Sub-Timeline” in parallel views like lifedashboard. The first timeline is “Main Timeline”, the rest of timelineare “Sub-Timelines”: “Aidan son #2”, “Daniel #1 son” 5310, “Dental” and“Elbow Surgery”. John Peterson could move his hand up and down andscroll up and down on his life dashboard. All days are separated withgrey lines. All Events are displayed in “Main Timeline”, “ALL”, 5320. Bytouching each circle the event detail opens up refer to FIG. 17I. Theevent 5330 and event 5340 are both scheduled on the same day. They bothare between two grey lines separating days. However one belongs to“Sub-Timeline”, “Aidan son #2”, 5360 and one belongs to “Sub-timeline”,“Dental” 5350. In FIG. 17 John Peterson's life is mapped out in front ofhim and he can see all his events that are conflicting at the day level.However John Peterson would like to see his day view to see if event5350 and 5340 are conflicting. By clicking on blue triangle “5370” Johncan see the his day view and see all conflicting events at thehour/minute level as it is displayed in FIG. 17K.

Referring to FIG. 17K is the continuation of FIG. 17J when “TimelineUser” touched the blue triangle button 5370 next to any day in thedashboard. FIG. 17K shows a generic “Day/Hour/Minute view dashboard”.There is no “Main Timeline” in this view. There are four “Sub-Timeline”,“Timeline A”, “Timeline B”, “TimeLine C” and “Timeline D”. User cantouch each “Sub-Timeline” and only view the Day/Hour/Min view of that“Sub_Timeline”. In this example, user is looking at all events in“Sub-Timeline”, “Timeline B” 5450. User sees the events in differenthours 5420 of the day 5400, 5470. As it is shown, all the Sub-Timelines5430, 5450, . . . that are not hidden by user are displayed in paralleland depending on the number of events that are under each “Sub-Timeline”the width of the “Sub-Timeline” could be increased or decreased. Forexample under “Sub-Timeline”, “Timeline B”, the “Event 1” 5440 starts at1:00 AM and ends at 4:00 AM, the “Event 2”, 5460 starts at 3:00 AM andfinishes at 7:00 AM. Since “Event 1” and “Event 2” having conflict oroverlap, the planning system algorithm opens a new invisible column forconflicting events. However event “Event 5” and “Event 6” don't have anyoverlap and could stay in the same invisible column. The width of thisinvisible column is equal to the event strip. “Sub-Timelines” could behidden and unhidden the same as the Planning System Web. For simplicityit is not shown here.

FIG. 17L depicts a screen that shows a different format for the mobileuser interface that is in line with FIG. 6. In this screen, the usersees four (4) Sub-Timelines, “Home” 5754, “Car”, “Aidan son#2” 5753 and“Pregnancy”. If user touches “>>” button 5751, the user can see his/herother Sub-Timelines. Currently, user has touched Aidan son #2 5753 andthat is the Sub-Timeline being displayed. In this Sub-Timeline, the userhas three (3) events, “1^(st) grade end of school year party” 5756,“1^(st) grade math test no 14”, 5752 and “1^(st) Art Plus session”. Theuser has touched triangle 5755 and it expanded the first event “1^(st)grade math test no 14” 5752. In this event, he has two (2) pictures asmedia uploaded, and if the user touches on “Click here for sign upsheet”, a media file opens up that allows the user to enter informationinto “sign-up sheet for potluck”. The white triangle next to otherevents indicates collapsed mode. If user clicks on button 5750, he cancreate a new event. During event creation, he could decide on the targetSub-Timeline.

FIG. 18 depicts an exemplary architecture for implementing a computingdevice 1800 in accordance with one or more embodiments which may be usedto implement any of mobile phones, tablets, devices, or any othercomputer system or computing device component thereof. It will beappreciated that other devices that can be used with the computingdevice 1800, such as a client or a server, may be similarly configured.As illustrated in FIG. 18, computing device 1800 may include a bus 1810,a processor 1820, a memory 1830, a read only memory (ROM) 1840, astorage device 1850, an input device 1860, an output device 1870, and acommunication interface 1880.

Bus 1810 may include one or more interconnects that permit communicationamong the components of computing device 1800. Processor 1820 mayinclude any type of processor, microprocessor, or processing logic thatmay interpret and execute instructions (e.g., a field programmable gatearray (FPGA)). Processor 1820 may include a single device (e.g., asingle core) and/or a group of devices (e.g., multi-core). Memory 1830may include a random access memory (RAM) or another type of dynamicstorage device that may store information and instructions for executionby processor 1820. Memory 1830 may also be used to store temporaryvariables or other intermediate information during execution ofinstructions by processor 1820.

ROM 1840 may include a ROM device and/or another type of static storagedevice that may store static information and instructions for processor1820. Storage device 1850 may include a magnetic disk and/or opticaldisk and its corresponding drive for storing information and/orinstructions. Storage device 1850 may include a single storage device ormultiple storage devices, such as multiple storage devices operating inparallel. Moreover, storage device 1850 may reside locally on thecomputing device 1800 and/or may be remote with respect to a server andconnected thereto via network and/or another type of connection, such asa dedicated link or channel.

Input device 1860 may include any mechanism or combination of mechanismsthat permit an operator to input information to computing device 1800,such as a keyboard, a mouse, a touch sensitive display device, amicrophone, a pen-based pointing device, and/or a biometric inputdevice, such as a voice recognition device and/or a finger printscanning device. Output device 1870 may include any mechanism orcombination of mechanisms that outputs information to the operator,including a display, a printer, a speaker, etc.

Communication interface 1880 may include any transceiver-like mechanismthat enables computing device 1800 to communicate with other devicesand/or systems, such as a client, a server, a license manager, a vendor,etc. For example, communication interface 1880 may include one or moreinterfaces, such as a first interface coupled to a network and/or asecond interface coupled to a license manager. Alternatively,communication interface 1880 may include other mechanisms (e.g., awireless interface) for communicating via a network, such as a wirelessnetwork. In one implementation, communication interface 1880 may includelogic to send code to a destination device, such as a target device thatcan include general purpose hardware (e.g., a personal computer formfactor), dedicated hardware (e.g., a digital signal processing (DSP)device adapted to execute a compiled version of a model or a part of amodel), etc.

Computing device 1800 may perform certain functions in response toprocessor 1820 executing software instructions contained in acomputer-readable medium, such as memory 1830. In alternativeembodiments, hardwired circuitry may be used in place of or incombination with software instructions to implement features consistentwith principles of the disclosure. Thus, implementations consistent withprinciples of the disclosure are not limited to any specific combinationof hardware circuitry and software.

Exemplary embodiments may be embodied in many different ways as asoftware component. For example, it may be a stand-alone softwarepackage, a combination of software packages, or it may be a softwarepackage incorporated as a “tool” in a larger software product. It may bedownloadable from a network, for example, a website, as a stand-aloneproduct or as an add-in package for installation in an existing softwareapplication. It may also be available as a client-server softwareapplication, or as a web-enabled software application. It may also beembodied as a software package installed on a hardware device.

FIG. 19 depicts a schematic block diagram of an exemplary system inaccordance with one or more embodiments. System 900 may include one ormore devices 905-1, 905-2, . . . , 905-N, server 910, including one ormore modules 915, and database 920, external database 925, network 930,and one or more interfaces 935, including reports 940, websites 945, API950, and other interfaces 955. The two-way communication between theserespective devices is shown by the arrowed lines.

Numerous specific details have been set forth to provide a thoroughunderstanding of the embodiments. It will be understood, however, thatthe embodiments may be practiced without these specific details. Inother instances, well-known operations, components and circuits have notbeen described in detail so as not to obscure the embodiments. It can beappreciated that the specific structural and functional details arerepresentative and do not necessarily limit the scope of theembodiments.

It is worthy to note that any reference to “one embodiment” or “anembodiment” means that a particular feature, structure, orcharacteristic described in connection with the embodiment is includedin at least one embodiment. The appearances of the phrase “in oneembodiment” in the specification are not necessarily all referring tothe same embodiment.

Although some embodiments may be illustrated and described as comprisingexemplary functional components or modules performing variousoperations, it can be appreciated that such components or modules may beimplemented by one or more hardware components, software components,and/or combination thereof. The functional components and/or modules maybe implemented, for example, by logic (e.g., instructions, data, and/orcode) to be executed by a logic device (e.g., processor). Such logic maybe stored internally or externally to a logic device on one or moretypes of computer-readable storage media. Although several embodimentsare depicted as being offered through a website, it is to be understoodthat the interfaces and functional components may be implemented as amobile application, mobile device optimized web page, web site, or anycombination thereof.

Some embodiments may comprise an article of manufacture. An article ofmanufacture may comprise a storage medium to store logic. Examples of astorage medium may include one or more types of computer-readablestorage media capable of storing electronic data, including volatilememory or non-volatile memory, removable or non-removable memory,erasable or non-erasable memory, writeable or re-writeable memory, andso forth. Examples of storage media include hard drives, disk drives,solid state drives, and any other tangible storage media.

It also is to be appreciated that the described embodiments illustrateexemplary implementations, and that the functional components and/ormodules may be implemented in various other ways which are consistentwith the described embodiments. Furthermore, the operations performed bysuch components or modules may be combined and/or separated for a givenimplementation and may be performed by a greater number or fewer numberof components or modules.

Some of the figures may include a flow diagram. Although such figuresmay include a particular logic flow, it can be appreciated that thelogic flow merely provides an exemplary implementation of the generalfunctionality. Further, the logic flow does not necessarily have to beexecuted in the order presented unless otherwise indicated. In addition,the logic flow may be implemented by a hardware element, a softwareelement executed by a processor, or any combination thereof.

While the present invention has been described in connection with whatis considered the most practical and preferred embodiment, it is to beunderstood that the present invention is not to be limited to thedisclosed arrangements, but is intended to cover various arrangementswhich are included within the spirit and scope of the broadest possibleinterpretation of the appended claims so as to encompass allmodifications and equivalent arrangements which are possible.

The invention claimed is:
 1. A system for a user-vendor interfacebetween a user and a vendor, the system comprising: a memory; and aprocessor coupled to the memory, the processor being configured to:receive input from a team lead vendor for a team timeline for a team;create the team timeline for the team; display the team timeline for theteam; receive input from the team lead vendor for starting the team withat least one team member; create the team with the at least one teammember; display the team with the at least one team member; receiveinput from the at least one team member for a team member event; createthe team member event in the team timeline; display the team memberevent in the team timeline; receive input from the team lead vendor topublish the team timeline for access by a timeline user; create thepublished team timeline for access by the timeline user; and display thepublished team timeline and permit access by the timeline user; receiveinput from the timeline user to subscribe to the published teamtimeline; create the team member event in a timeline for the timelineuser; display the team member event in a timeline for the timeline user;receive input from the team lead vendor to search for the at least oneteam member; receive input from the team lead vendor to send aninvitation for the at least one team member; create at least oneinvitation for the at least one team member; display the at least oneinvitation for the at least one team member; receive input from a singlevendor for a single vendor timeline; create the single vendor timeline;display the single vendor timeline; receive input from the team leadvendor for a team lead vendor event for the team timeline; create theteam lead vendor event in the team timeline; display the team leadvendor event in the team timeline; receive input from the at least oneteam member for accepting the invitation from the team lead vendor toallow the at least one team member to access the team timeline; createaccess to the team timeline for the at least one team member; displayaccess to the team timeline for the at least one team member; whereinthe at least one team member is a vendor; receive input from the atleast one team member for one or more of adding, deleting and updatingthe team member event on the team timeline; implement the one or moreaddition, deletion and update to the team member event on the teamtimeline; wherein the published team timeline is republished and thepublished timeline continues to exist as a historical published teamtimeline; receive user input from the timeline user to at least one ofsubscribe and unsubscribe to one or more of the team timeline and asingle vendor with a single vendor timeline; implement the at least oneof the subscription and unsubscription to the one or more of the teamtimeline and the single vendor timeline for the timeline user, whereinthe team timelines, when unsubscribed, are retained as historicaltimelines for use in uniform historical comparisons; receive input fromthe team lead vendor to one or more of delete and change the team memberevent; create the one or more deletion and change to the team memberevent in the team timeline; display the one or more deletion and changeto the team member event in the team timeline; wherein the team memberevent comprises one or more of a coupon and advertisement; receive inputfrom the timeline user to create the user timeline; create the usertimeline; display the user timeline; receive input from the timelineuser to browse one or more of the team timeline from one or more of theteam lead vendor and the single vendor to subscribe to one or more ofthe team timeline; create a subscription to the one or more of the oneor more team vendor timelines and the single vendor timeline for thetimeline user, wherein the subscription directs the team member event toone or more of: a) a main timeline of the user timeline, and b) at leastone sub-timeline of the user timeline; and display a subscription to theone or more of the one or more team vendor timelines and the singlevendor timeline for the timeline user, wherein the subscription directsthe team member event to one or more of: a) a main timeline of the usertimeline, and b) at least one sub-timeline of the user timeline; whereineach of the user, single vendor and team vendor timelines are updatedand an original timeline is maintained as a historical timeline forcomparison; wherein the team lead vendor includes one or more of ateacher, doctor, company, advisory and vendor; the timeline userincludes one of a parent, patient, consumer, company, advisor andvendor; receive input from at least one timeline user for creating amain timeline; create the main timeline; display the main timeline;receive input from at least one timeline user to create at least onesub-timeline, wherein each of the at least one sub-timeline has a uniquecategory; create the at least one sub-timeline with the unique category;display the at least one sub-timeline with the unique category, whereinthe at least one sub-timeline is one of: shared with and copied toanother timeline user; receive input from the at least one timeline userto create a timeline user event; create the timeline user event on themain timeline; display the timeline user event on the main timeline;receive input from the at least one timeline user to create the timelineuser event in one or more of the at least one sub-timeline; create thetimeline user event in one or more of the at least one sub-timelines;display the timeline user event in one or more of the at least onesub-timelines; receive input from at least one of the team lead vendor,the team member, and the single vendor for a seeded timeline eventincluding at least one of a one-time event, a recurring event, and aflexible event; create the seeded timeline event on one or more of theteam timeline and the single vendor timeline; display the seededtimeline event on one or more of the team timeline and the single vendortimeline; receive input from one or more of: the team lead vendor, thesingle vendor and the user timeline for sharing one or more of the teamtimeline, the single vendor timeline, and the user timeline; create oneor more of: the shared team timeline, the shared single vendor timeline,and the shared user timeline; display one or more shared team timeline,shared single vendor timeline, and shared user timeline; wherein apop-up event is filtered based upon key words by the timeline user;receive input regarding auto-populating an event; create theauto-populated event in one or more of the team vendor timeline and thesingle vendor timeline; display the auto-populated event in one or moreof the team vendor timeline and the single vendor timeline; receiveinput from the timeline user to subscribe to one of the team vendortimeline and the single vendor timeline; create the subscription;receive input from one or more of the single vendor and the team leadvendor selecting one or more of a category and a sub-category relatingto a vendor business; create the one or more category and sub-category;display the one or more category and sub-category; receive input fromthe ad-creator vendor for creating an advertisement by selecting a mediafile based on the one or more category and sub-category for a targetvendor wherein the target vendor is one or more of the single vendor andthe team lead vendor; create the advertisement for delivery to one ormore of the category and sub-category of the target vendor; display theadvertisement for delivery to one or more of the category andsub-category of the target vendor; said system further comprising: avirtual middle layer within said system's architecture; wherein saidvirtual middle layer converts a first user-vendor interface for saiduser with a first vendor to be the same as a second user-vendorinterface for said user with a second vendor, with display of at leastone of main timelines, one of sub-timelines, and one of subscribed-tovendor timelines; wherein said virtual middle layer produces a 2-wayinvitation process for said user, so that said user makes partnershipwith vendors dynamically; an abstract layer within said system'sarchitecture; wherein said abstract layer is provided by a planningmodule between a timeline user and a vendor; wherein an advisor appliessaid abstract layer; an audit module within said system's architecture;wherein said audit module is led by a team lead vendor, to make the teamtimeline available for users; a seeded events module within saidsystem's architecture; wherein when user provides the initial parameter,vendor with seeded events updates all vendor's relative and dependentevents and provides a customized timeline; an auto-populate modulewithin said system's architecture; wherein an auto-populate event iscreated in one or more of team vendor timelines and single vendortimelines; wherein said vendor has entries auto-populated by anauto-populate functionality; wherein said auto-populate uses saidvendor's advertising e-mails to match registered vendors and saidplanning module; wherein an event is created for each e-mail and isplaced in said vendor's timeline automatically.